Rogue Diallers join Other Illegal Activities monitored by ICSTIS

The Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS) received 27,501 complaints in 2003, an almost 240% increase on the previous year and the highest annual level of complaints received since they were established in 1986. Most were from members of the British general public.

'We have seen anonymous "I fancy you" text messages, fake network text messages, misleading voicemail messages, and a torrent of so-called 'competition' text messages. At best, these services have been misleading in nature and inappropriate in terms of the methods of promotion. At worst, they appear to have been downright fraudulent,' says ICSTIS chairman Sir Peter North.

Generally, when something seriously breaches the Code of Practice and causes widespread consumer harm, the committee can call in its Emergency Procedure. This happened more than 70 times last year. The procedure allows ICSTIS to bar access to the services with immediate effect and order the networks concerned to withhold revenue payments to the service providers involved.

However, a new series of complaints goes beyond the ICSTIS remit. 'Problems with premium rate-charged Internet services – caused by pop-up boxes, spam e-mails, and non-compliant or 'rogue' diallers – started in late 2003 and have been of very serious concern to us in early 2004,' says North.

'Rogue' diallers are cases where, not only has the dialler software been used to divert PC users from their normal ISP number and reconnect them to a premium rate number, but it has been downloaded and activated automatically without the user's knowledge or consent. It has also set itself on the PC as the default dialler for future Internet connections.

This practice goes beyond the 'content and promotion' scope of the ICSTIS Code, being clearly fraudulent. The committee is referring instances of this to the police.

ICSTIS now has a pop-up box on its site devoted to complaints about 'diallers'. It is currently mounting a special investigation into the situation, and adjudications regarding these services will be made publicly available on the website.

The figures:
* Two-thirds of all complaints received last year were caused by text messages and Internet diallers alone.
* Spam and scam text messages enticing mobile users to call premium rate numbers accounted for approximately 7,500 complaints in 2003.
* A number of service providers are promoting similarly harmful services in a variety of new guises – some have used 087 national rate numbers before referring callers on to premium rate numbers, while some have deliberately left voicemail messages or missed calls to trick people into calling their services.
* Recently, ICSTIS imposed fines totalling £450,000 against six seemingly interlinked companies for promoting their services in such a seriously misleading manner.
* There were almost 11,000 complaints about Internet-based services in 2003, with most complaints concerning unauthorised use, misleading advertising and adult services failing to cut off at the required £20.00 maximum call cost.
* In many cases, high bills were generated as a result of consumers' mistaken belief that their normal £25.00 or £30.00 per month ISP subscription covered all Internet connections, including access to premium rate services.

Associated Link: Full ICSTIS report

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