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01-28-2009, 03:39 PM
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#1 | | HELP ME PLS!!!
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: here
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| Bell customers face $220,000 bills due to hackers
TORONTO -- Businesses are crying foul after receiving sky-high phone bills that charged them upwards of $200,000 because hackers broke into their voicemail system and hijacked it to make long-distance calls.
While a spokeswoman for BCE's Bell Canada (TSX:BCE) says the bills have been reduced by the phone company, the businesses insist they shouldn't be forced to pay for any of the illicit calls.
Martin & Hillyer, a law firm based in Burlington, Ont., says it has been hacked and is battling to erase a bill that includes charges worth more than $207,000 in calls to Sierra Leone in western Africa.
The law firm isn't alone in but Bell Canada spokeswoman Julie Smithers calls the situation "really rare" and a "very old scam" that affects primarily business customers, although she said some residential consumers have been caught.
Here's how Bell thinks it works: an automated dialler will target a specific phone number, and wait for the voicemail to respond. Then, the computer will go through standard voicemail passwords.
Once it finds the correct password -- often a predictable number combination -- the automated dialler will choose an option on the voicemail that allows it to make long-distance phone calls.
On the phone bill it looks like the calls were made directly from the office or home number.
Smithers said Bell does have technologies to detect "bizarre calling patterns and in a lot of cases we can stop it by placing a block on long distance."
But she added "it is extremely important and it is the customer's responsibility to put passwords in place that are difficult to guess."
In Oakville, Gordon Cowan, the president of GPS Consulting Group & Insurance Agencies, faced a similar problem on a smaller scale.
His offices rung up more than $60,000 in charges, starting with a 14-hour period on a weekend in early October.
"I came in on Sunday and there was a call from the Bell Canada fraud squad saying we had been breached. They shut our voice mail system down," Cowan said in an interview.
"They told us to change our passwords, which we have been doing anyway, and they would be in contact with us."
Cowan says that a week later the hacking happened again.
In both instances, Bell Canada agreed to reduce bill as a "goodwill gesture" -- in the law firm's case they cut it down to about half of the $207,000.
Cowan's $60,000 bill was slashed to about $7,000.
Bell says that Canadians are responsible for taking steps to prevent their voicemail from being hacked.
"It is something that's not unique to Bell -- it has been seen by pretty much every telephone company in the country, the U.S. and internationally," Smithers said.
Last week, reports from Australia said that police were investigating claims from a Perth business that its Internet phone lines were hacked, resulting in a $120,000 phone bill from more than 11,000 international calls.
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01-28-2009, 03:41 PM
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#2 | | HELP ME PLS!!!
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: here
Posts: 5,793
Thanked 146 Times in 67 Posts
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WTF... hacking voice mail to make calls?...
but it's your fault if you voice mail gets hacked! LOL WTF.
glad to see bell be so nice to reduce the bill to 100k down from 200k LOL... taking a battle against a law firm. brilliant!
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01-28-2009, 03:47 PM
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#3 | | Willing to sell a family member for a few minutes on RS
Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Surrey
Posts: 12,760
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damn crazy
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01-28-2009, 04:24 PM
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#4 | | Zombie Mod
Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Langley
Posts: 9,903
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Ah.... good ol' classic PBX hacking. Jolly Roger, anyone?
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Romans 10:9 | |
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01-28-2009, 04:38 PM
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#5 | | Wunder? Wonder?? Wander???
Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: vancouver
Posts: 220
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lol maybe the hacker works for bell
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01-28-2009, 04:44 PM
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#6 | | I contribute to threads in the offtopic forum
Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Van.
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bells sucks
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RIP JN
UNCE UNCE UNCE! Quote:
Originally Posted by strykn  Comparing A&B with deadmau5? Really? I should fucking slap you | 2007 Acura TL 2005 Acura TL....RIP 2003 Honda Accord Coupe V6....RIP | |
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01-28-2009, 05:07 PM
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#7 | | I only answer to my username, my real name is Irrelevant!
Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: CELICAland
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| Quote:
Originally Posted by johny But she added "it is extremely important and it is the customer's responsibility to put passwords in place that are difficult to guess." | .... how difficult could a 4 number combination be....
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01-28-2009, 05:24 PM
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#8 | | racing & tech mod.
Join Date: May 2004 Location: Vancouver
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It's completely unaccetpable that Bell is leaving the customers on the hook for a portion of the bills. When your VISA number is stolen, you do not pay anything, VISA goes after the theives, because they can track the purchase locations.
Bell can track the phone numbers to physical locations just like VISA can, but instead of doing the leg work, they pass on the bill to the victim. Total BS. I hope BELL gets sued for that business policy.
Telecom companies have been ripping us all off for years with excessive service charges. They are just as bad, if not worse, than the oil companies. screw em all.
Last edited by Rich Sandor; 01-28-2009 at 06:23 PM.
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01-28-2009, 05:44 PM
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#9 | | My homepage has been set to RS
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: vancouver
Posts: 2,217
Thanked 811 Times in 274 Posts
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| Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich Sandor It's completely unaccetpable that Bell is leaving the customers on the hook for a portion of the bills. When you VISA number is stolen, you do not pay anything, VISA goes after the theifs, because they can track the purchase locations.
Bell can track the phone numbers to physical locations just like VISA can, but instead of doing the leg work, they pass on the bill to the victim. Total BS. I hope BELL gets sued for that business policy.
Telecom companies have been ripping us all off for years with excessive service charges. They are just as bad, if not worse, than the oil companies. screw em all. | +1, use to work for a consulting firm. worked with bell mobility, on site, even though i got free fones from bell, i never used them. for the same reasons. bell was the master in phone monopoly, turning off features on thr phones.
thats why they r going down.
fuck em...
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01-28-2009, 11:06 PM
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#10 | | ESKETIT
Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Shambhala
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In both instances, Bell Canada agreed to reduce bill as a "goodwill gesture" -- in the law firm's case they cut it down to about half of the $207,000.
lol fuck that
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01-28-2009, 11:14 PM
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#11 | | Banned (ABWS)
Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Burnaby.
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its like the time i talked to fido about fucking up my phone bill. I had the city fido plan which is unlimited outgoing and incoming, they charged me for all the calls i called out so basicly an unlimited incoming plan. It was like 450 dollers and they said they would reduce it half for me cuz THEY fucked up
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01-29-2009, 12:09 AM
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#12 | | Banned (ABWS)
Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: vancouver
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fido always messed up the bill.. ~_~
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01-29-2009, 07:38 AM
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#13 | | Ready to be Man handled by RS!
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Vancity
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just tell them to wave it off  | |
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01-29-2009, 07:58 AM
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#14 | | Glorious Gaming PC Master Race
Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Coquitlam y0!
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happened to the company i work at too.
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01-29-2009, 01:28 PM
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#15 | | 14 dolla balla aint got nothing on me!
Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: richmond
Posts: 676
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| Quote:
Originally Posted by trduhs its like the time i talked to fido about fucking up my phone bill. I had the city fido plan which is unlimited outgoing and incoming, they charged me for all the calls i called out so basicly an unlimited incoming plan. It was like 450 dollers and they said they would reduce it half for me cuz THEY fucked up | hope you didn't pay, u should tell them you're switching to telus if they don't wave it off, telecom companies hate the competition
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