On Friday, 11-19-04, I was using my parents' computer for email and a little bit of web surfing. I noticed there were a lot of popup ads and the computer was going really slow. So I figured it was just spy ware and I downloaded anti-spyware programs to get rid of it.
Afterwards I got off of the internet, but after AOL was closed and everything, I noticed the Icon in the corner showing that I was still online! I realized that it was dialer and I immediately unplugged the phone line from the wall. Then I ran the spy ware removal programs and I haven't had any problems with it since. That is, until my parents got a bill from Premier Premium Communications for a 6 minute, $30.00 phone call to the U.K.!!
My parents were outraged and of course blamed me for the bill because I was the only one online. I tried to explain the whole spy ware situation, but they still made me responsible for figuring out the bill. The next day I went over the "Billing Rights info" on the back of the bill. It threatened that if we didn't pay by December 20th, that we would be turned in to a collections agency, and that we would be reported to the credit bureau (s) as delinquent.
So I called the phone number, but I received a message saying all the circuits were full at the time. So I tried for a little while longer, but still the same message. So I tried again the next day but still, the same thing. I waited for my parents to get home to see what I should do.
They said that I should get a hold of AOL and tell them about the whole thing. And now, today we received a bill from another company called USBI for the same amount of time, on the same day, but it was for $12.30 and it said it was to England.
My Mom told me to figure it out right away and be done with it. So I went online and tried the website, but for some reason, the address given on the bill didn't work. I realized then that this company is bogus and that we were scammed.
Then I did a search for the company on the internet and I found that others have been scammed in the same exact way. So now I just have to figure out how to make sure this bill isn't collected and that our actual phone service (SBC) knows about what is going on.
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