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DENVER - The Better Business Bureau has a consumer warning about an alleged ploy to take your money using deceptive pop up ads on the Internet.
Those ads may be designed to hijack the modem on your computer - causing all sorts of problems. Legitimate companies use pop up ads to grab your attention - hoping that you'll click inside the ad to learn more about their products. But the BBB says there are shadier operators out there that have motives that aren't so straightforward. The BBB believes some companies are surreptitiously downloading software on computers when people click on certain pop up ads. The software then takes over your modem and makes long distance calls to sites outside the country that charge premium per minute fees - similar to the way 900 number operators charge their customers. The BBB has received complaints from people who say they've had charges of $30 to $1,000 show up on their phone bills, or direct bills through the mail, for calls they say they never made. "What's happening is the software is loading on your computer that actually redirects your computer somewhere else, and in the case of the complaints we've seen, the somewhere else is a long distance call that can be very expensive," Susan Liehe of the Denver/Boulder BBB said. Premier Premium Communications of Texas is one company the BBB suspects of using this practice. The BBB has received more than 100 complaints against the company in just the last month. We could not get a hold of the company Friday for comment - and the BBB has had no success either. If you live in the Denver/Boulder area and this has happened to you, the Denver/Boulder BBB would like to hear from you. Its web site is www.denverbbb.org. This is one other reason why the BBB says you should check your phone bills closely.
http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?...MPLATEID=5991da4c-ac1f-02d8-0055-99a54930515e
Those ads may be designed to hijack the modem on your computer - causing all sorts of problems. Legitimate companies use pop up ads to grab your attention - hoping that you'll click inside the ad to learn more about their products. But the BBB says there are shadier operators out there that have motives that aren't so straightforward. The BBB believes some companies are surreptitiously downloading software on computers when people click on certain pop up ads. The software then takes over your modem and makes long distance calls to sites outside the country that charge premium per minute fees - similar to the way 900 number operators charge their customers. The BBB has received complaints from people who say they've had charges of $30 to $1,000 show up on their phone bills, or direct bills through the mail, for calls they say they never made. "What's happening is the software is loading on your computer that actually redirects your computer somewhere else, and in the case of the complaints we've seen, the somewhere else is a long distance call that can be very expensive," Susan Liehe of the Denver/Boulder BBB said. Premier Premium Communications of Texas is one company the BBB suspects of using this practice. The BBB has received more than 100 complaints against the company in just the last month. We could not get a hold of the company Friday for comment - and the BBB has had no success either. If you live in the Denver/Boulder area and this has happened to you, the Denver/Boulder BBB would like to hear from you. Its web site is www.denverbbb.org. This is one other reason why the BBB says you should check your phone bills closely.
http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?...MPLATEID=5991da4c-ac1f-02d8-0055-99a54930515e