Will You Protect Yourself from Modem Hijacking?
With the increasing number of modem hijackings otherwise known as International modem dialing, it is time for home computer owners to take measures to protect themselves and not rely on telephone companies or the government to come to their rescue by forgiving the excessive charges resulting from this fraud.
(PRWEB) December 31, 2004 -- According to many sources on the Internet, both official and public, the instances of modem hijacking rose throughout the year. Modem hijacking is when a dialer program disconnects a computer from an authorized provider and reconnects it to another server, usually located in another country and this results in premium telephone charges. Run a search on modem hijacking" and read some of the horror stories where the victims were hit with huge telephone bills, sometimes in the thousands of dollars. In this situation, the telephone companies are mostly not sympathetic to the victims complaints of not being responsible for the charges. The only recourse is to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission which usually doesnt give satisfactory results.
These dialers used to be associated only with adult sites, but recently they have been delivered through game sites, music download sites, some software download sites and some reports suggest from E-mail. The E-mail or an attachment doesnt even have to be opened, just highlighted. Some redialers give notice about the conditions of being reconnected but in very small print. Others install themselves without the users knowledge or permission, then they turn the modems volume off and the user isnt aware of what is happening.
Users with a dial-up connection and visiting the above sites are at risk the most. However, some experts believe that even broadband is vulnerable if VoIP(Voice over Internet Protocol) is installed. VoIP is becoming evermore popular which means that a whole new segment is opening up for modem hijacking, consisting of computer users who believed they were safe from this fraud.
If you did a search on modem hijacking" as suggested above, you can find many sites warning about this scam, one of the top ten Internet frauds, but none of them mention a software solution in their points telling you how to protect yourself from modem hijacking, because they dont know it exists. ReconnectWarning has focused its efforts on alerting the authors of these sites, both government and public, recommending that they update the information in their articles by mentioning a software solution. We have received favorable responses from most of them, but we will continue until this information is more generally available to the public.
In summary, users shouldnt depend wholly on firewalls, anti-virus or spyware removers for protection from modem hijacking. The dialers can even bypass International Call Blocking. And those broadband users, whether they have VoIP installed or are planning to install it need more protection than the above can provide. www.ReconnectWarning.com intercepts the number before it is even dialed, giving the user protection at the very beginning. In the end, would you take your chances with your current measures, perhaps be victimized and have to go through the steps necessary to have the premium charges reduced or would you rather invest $10 to protect your computer, your family and your wallet from modem hijacking?
We hope you make the right choice.
We wish everyone a safe surfing New Year.... with ReconnectWarning.
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