track phony phonecalls

I had $70 worth of calls show up on my phone bill on the number I use for internet access. How can I be sure I am not doing this wihout knowing it? The calls were at 8:30 a.m. when only two of us were home, and we don't know about it. The bill comes from navicomm llc and one call comm and show "diego garcxx" on the bill. (I have had the site blocked.) Is there any way to track phonecalls or internet calls made on my compute,r like a list hidden somewhere? Do you have any interesting comments?

 

The after-effects of having Zipzappromos The infection was dialing out from your machine. Call your phone company and see if they will remove the charges.

 

pegmorell--Won't help you much, but you are not alone
http://www.bogusoperation.com/
Scroll about 60% of the way down.

You should perhaps go here, and follow the directions.
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=37074
You may have some spyware on your PC that is highjacking that phone number.

Also, but not instead of the above suggestion, can you talk to your ISP? They might be able to help.
If I have understood you (or the PC) are dialing into your ISP's supposedly local contact number and that is apparently being rerouted to a phone in Diego Garcia (a British-governed island between India and Africa, which among other things has a US naval base on it). Does the ISP offer alternative numbers for access?
Or you can talk with your local phone company. They should be able to stop the re-routing.
But if you do have spyware, the problem will probably only repeat if you do not get rid of the spyware even if the ISP and phone company are helpful.
And if you do not have one already, you should consider installing a firewall, like ZoneAlarm (Free)
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp?lid=zaskulist_download

noahdfear--You beat me by quite a bit. How do you know that pegmorell does not still have the infection?

 

Hi Jim

I suppose without maybe some port scans, firewall logs, etc, I can't be positive. I am however, hoping that those charges reflect dates prior to and up to the point where we stopped the zipzappromos popups on pegmorell's PC, and none since.

http://windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=43570

And as you pointed out, pegmorell is not alone.

http://windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=44135 (second paragraph)

A firewall is good, sound advice!

 

zipzap aftereffects

I believe my pc is free of scam programs since windows bbs people helped me remove them earlier this month. The bogus phone calls predate my work with the bbs. However, I still do not understand how my pc can dial Diego Garcia or Guinea-Bissau without my knowledge. Who is doing this any why isn't it illegal?

My ISP (Yahoo/SBC) says the problem is mine -- specifically, with my pc security system. My local phone company (also SBC) says the calls were made from my phone number. I checked my Windows firewall and it was turned off, I am not sure why. I turned it back on. Now I am not sure whether I should use a third party firewall or stick with the windows one. My next move is to contact the FCC. I'm not looking foward to it.

 

spyware legislation

Info re a case by NY Attn Gen Elliott Spitzer against Intermxs Media -- from an article in the Wall Street Journal April 29, 2005

The Journal writes that this is Mr. Spitzer's first case against a purveryor of spyware or adware.

IN addition, federal bill dubbed the "Spy Act," co-sponsored by Reps. Mary Bono (R., Calif.) and Ed Towns (D., N.Y.) that stalled in the Senate last year, was reintroduced in Congress in January. For those of us wishing to complain, it looks like Reps Bono and Towns are the ones to contact.

http://www.house.gov/writerep is the place to go.

 

By the software turning off the modem speaker. With a dial up account, they hang up the real ISP and then dial up the malicious number, with the modem speaker turned off it is real easy. While this is occuring, it appears the webpage is still loading up, appears to be real slow for some reason while this happening. Then it appears to be working. With a DSL connection, the modem simply dials out.
You appear to have DSL, why not remove the phone line from the dial up modem?
While I do believe it is illegal, we are talking about international issues. Just about the only illegal off shore activities the US law enforcement are going after are drug dealers, they can confiscate money from them.
BTW, the windows firewall does nothing to stop outgoing connections from any program on your computer, it only blocks unsolicited incoming connections. If a program has an Exception to it, it is allowed to open a port and accept any incoming connection to that program.

 

pegmorell--

You should get a third party firewall, such as ZoneAlarm. Windows firewall will not protect you from spyware that launches out bound traffic from your PC. When you install a third party firewall, turn off the Windows Firewall. You do not want two software firewalls running simultaneously.

noahdfear--I was not aware of prior thread. Thanks.

 

free zone alarm install

I'm not able to install free zone alarm with the option of the free scan of my pc first. It may be that my activeX controls are not available. That happened before, and I did have AciveX installed but I had to do something to make it available. I can't find my notes on how to do this. Apparently I can get to the place where I pay for the scan but that's not what I had in mind.

However, I have just updated and run run ad-aware, spybot and spyware blaster, so perhaps I can safely download and install zone alarm without the pre-install scan.

 

Get the download. I've put it on many comps and never once used their scan.

 

download zonealarm

Thanks, I'll do it

 

Hi
I have a question.
I have never had a dialer, But I don't have a long distance phone company.
I don't call long distance very often, so I buy a card from my local shopping store. AT&T card I believe it is....anyway, could a dialer still call long distance with me not have a long distance company?

Geri

 

Hi Geri,

My best guess is that if your telephone service doesn't support long distance calling, then a dialer couldn't make a long distance call. I don't know for sure though. Have you ever tried placing a long distance call without using the card? It's possible that one might be routed through a default carrier such as MCI or ATT. Good question for your telephone service provider though, and your ISP. If you do contact them, let us know what they say, please.

 

Geri--I bet that your local phone service offers long distance service and will happily accept any direct dialing (1-area code) of a long distance call at rather high rates if you do not "dial around" as you are doing or have not designated some other provider for long distance service.