TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: FTC Gets Settlement With Yet Another Dial-Sleazer

FTC Gets Settlement With Yet Another Dial-Sleazer

Danny Burstein (dannyb@panix.com)
Mon, 6 Dec 2004 19:44:28 -0500

(as is typical, the only "punishment" is a return of _some_ of the
cash and a promise to behave in the future. And there's no extension
to the various telcos who facilitated this scam. Better than nothing,
though.)

"Alyon Technologies, Inc. will drop its claim to approximately $17
million in consumer bills to settle Federal Trade Commission charges
that it engaged in unauthorized billing and collection for adult
videotext services supposedly accessed on the Internet by hundreds of
thousands of consumers. Another $22 million in bills may be forgiven
if consumers challenge their charges.

"According to the FTC, the defendants downloaded a modem-dialing
program onto consumers computers, allegedly after consumers clicked
on a button to agree to the terms and conditions for such a
download. The dialing program then disconnected consumers from their
own Internet service providers and reconnected them to the defendants
network.

[ snippety snip, rest at:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/12/alyonsettlement.htm

_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

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