High-Tech Scenario:  Modem Redialing

A high-tech scenario: you log onto the Internet and visit an adult entertainment site; but first, you have to download a special viewer program. Your next phone bill is for thousands of dollars. What happened?

I'm Shirley Rooker for the Federal Trade Commission.

When you downloaded the viewer software, it disconnected your computer from your local internet service provider and reconnected the computer to a phone number in some other part of the world - all without your knowing what was going on, because the software turned off your modem speaker, so you couldn't hear the disconnect or the dialing of an international number.

And to compound the problem, the program did not disconnect from the international number until you turned off your computer.

Okay, so it hasn't happened to you yet - but it did to thousands of consumers who incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars in international long distance charges.

I'm Shirley Rooker, director of WTOP radio's Call For Action for the Federal Trade Commission.

January 2002