Download Scam Uploads High Phone Bills

The federal government Wednesday announced a crackdown on an Internet scam offering “free” software, which surreptitiously took over home computer modems and ran up costly international long-distance charges.

The Federal Trade Commission won a court order ending the scam, which worked like this: Consumers surfing the World Wide Web came across advertisements at sites like www.beavisbutthead.com for “all nude all free” pictures.

The catch? They had to download a special Windows 95 software viewer.

Once the software was in the home computer, it secretly took control of the modem, muted its loudspeakers, then cut off the local Internet service provider and dialed a number in the former Soviet republic of Moldova.

Consumers continued to surf the Web, not knowing they had been switched to a foreign Internet service provider at toll charges of $2 to $3 a minute. They remained logged on with the meter running until they turned off their computer, the FTC said. Profit was shared by the Moldovan phone company with the scam artists.

“The [telephone] bills were often the first notice that you, the consumer, got that you’d been defrauded,” Jodie Bernstein, consumer protection director at the FTC, told a news conference.

FTC officials said it appears the calls never actually went to Moldova. The FTC said the calls were diverted to Canada, where the computer images were located. This was possible because all calls to Moldova from North America are routed through Canada.

A federal judge in New York issued a temporary restraining order to halt the scams.