Rogue dialler software can secretly install itself on a computer

No-one wants to find themself on the wrong end of a �200 phone bill.

And when that bill has been racked up by a rogue computer programme set up secretly to dial premium rate numbers, handing over the cash is even more galling.

Ian Pringle, a businessman from Ripon, North Yorkshire, explains how he was caught out by a rogue dialler which installed itself on his home PC.

The first he knew was when BT contacted him to say an unusually high number of premium rate calls had been made on his phone line.

Teenagers quizzed

Mr Pringle, 52, said: "My first thought was 'what has somebody been doing', so I quizzed my two teenage children about it when they got home from school.

"They assured me they hadn't called these numbers and when I got the detailed bill it was really quite obvious that nobody in the house would have been doing what was going on.

"You could see that at 4.30pm on a Monday afternoon it started to dial up a series of premium rate numbers. It would go for 13 minutes, then reconnect and immediately redial.

"In two-and-a-half hours it dialled 10 or 11 times and ran up a bill of �170 plus VAT."

If someone knocked you down in the street and took a couple of hundred pounds, the full force of the law would come into effect Businessman Ian Pringle Premium rate fraud 'an epidemic'

It turned out a rogue dialler programme had been downloaded unknowingly from the internet, which then instructed the family's home computer repeatedly to call premium rate numbers.

After advice from a computer support firm, Mr Pringle was able to remove the software himself and decided to keep in place BT's service blocking calls to premium rate numbers.

He decided to pay the bill after trading standards officers told him he faced fighting his case at the small claims court.

Mr Pringle, who runs a motor parts service, hopes recounting his experience will prevent other people falling prey to the same scam.

Authorities 'paralysed'

He questions why the government and the phone operators have not done more to inform people about the problem.

Mr Pringle said: "Most of my friends I've told about it have already taken the precaution of putting these call bars in place.

"I'm in the fortunate position where I'm not pleased to pay �200 but I can afford to do it. But there are a lot of people, particularly elderly people, who can't.

"If someone knocked you down in the street and took a couple of hundred pounds, the full force of the law would come into effect.

"This is effectively the same thing but the authorities seem to be paralysed in the face of it."