Fighting the problem is a shared responsibility

More than 50,000 British Telecom customers face legal action if they don't pay the bills run up on their phones by rogue diallers.

The scam works by criminals planting a programme on your computer which changes the settings.

This connects you to a premium line that crucially, you haven't agreed to dial or to pay for.

The subject has prompted many Working Lunch viewers to contact us about their experiences.

Light user

One viewer, Graham Goodall, is on BT's light user tariff, so his regular bill is usually around �17.

Graham Goodall is outraged

Then suddenly he received a bill for �330, the result of a series of calls he didn't know about to premium rate lines.

Graham decided he was the victim of a rogue dialler and contacted BT.

No option

Graham received a letter from the company laying out how it sees the customer relationship.

BT said it is responsible for providing you with a working telephone line and you are free to attach equipment of your choice (a computer for instance) to it.

INTERNET DIALLER SCAM Only dial-up internet users will be affected Bills up to �1,500 are not uncommon Companies lease numbers from one of around 70 network operators The 1,000 blocked numbers are mainly international ones Nearly 10,000 cases are being investigated Most people will end up having to pay out BT estimates about 70% of cases are simply due to customers not understanding charging mechanism

If the user of the computer instigates calls, then the company says it has no option but to connect the call.

Customers are then required to pay the bill for any calls that were made within six weeks.

The premium rate line BT connected Graham to linked up to a service in Mallorca in Spain. The company is currently under investigation.

Graham says he is 'outraged' at how he has been treated by BT.

Complaints

At the moment, customers can complain to three main bodies about the scam.

The premium rate regulator Icstis.

A new organisation called Otelo - the office of the Telecommunications Ombudsman.

Or Ofcom - a government organisation set up to regulate telecommunications in the UK.

The only silver lining at the moment is that BT has foregone its share of the profits from such calls.

Its revenue, around three pence of the �1.50 a minute charge, is to be donated to the charity ChildLine.

Other stories in today's programme

The UK music industry is set to launch legal action against people who download music from the internet.

The Bank of England keeps interest rates on hold following the latest meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee.

The Birds Eye frozen food factory in Grimsby, Yorkshire, is to close with the loss of 600 jobs.

Moss Bros report a first half pre-tax profit of �703,000 compared with a loss of �1.82 million the year before.

Ofex, the stock market home to Arsenal and the UK's oldest brewer Shepherd Neame, has received a bid approach.