Was my Phone number hijacked?

[TEAK36]

Hi,

I have had a Phone account with Virgin (NTL) for several years now, and as I rarely use the phone my bill is always very low.

Imagine my shock when today I received a bill for about 100 calls made, totalling �119. All of the calls were for a duration of exactly 1 minute, and happen about 1 minute apart. My itemised bill shows the calls were made several times a day for the past month.

Obviously I got onto Virgin straight away, and to be fair to them they did not question it and immediately said they will credit the amount.

My question is, how did this happen? Was my line hijacked? All of the numbers listed begin with 0901. Does anyone know what this code is.

[Ethel]

Amstrad emailer uses on 0901 number - have you installed one recently?

Is your internet modem dial up or broadband - if dial up you could be infected with a rogue dialler (not you, your pc).

Have you tried dailling a number? If so, what happens?

[TEAK36]

Hi Ethel, thanks for your quick answer.

I have not had anything installed lately, and my Internet has been Broadband for years.

I did not try calling any of the numbers as I was worried that by doing this it might trigger more fraudulent calls.

I have read stories before where someone pretending to be from the phone company asks you to enter a code into your phone, but I am really careful with my phone and would never ever fall for this type of scam.

I am just baffled as to how someone could acces my phone line and am really worried it might happen again.

Virgin did not give me any explaination about what had happened, they just said that 0901 was a premium rate line and they would be able to put a stop to it.

I suppose next months bill will answer if they can stop it.

[Ethel]

Have you got Sky tv? A lot of their interactive things dial that number when you press the red button.

Has anyone be playing tv games?

[TEAK36]

oh sh1t!

my 6 year old son has a habit of messing around with the games.

[Ethel]

Press the red button to enter the game -and ker ching! Another premium rate call.