Sri Lanka will cut international direct dialing to 13 countries next week
in a bid to stop "modem hijacking" and Internet porn scams.
The main international gateway operator, Sri Lanka Telecom, was asked
to halt direct dialling to the 13 nations on Tuesday after complaints
that subscribers were billed for long-distance calls they never made.
Aruna Amarasekara, director-general of the Telecommunications
Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, said the blockage will be in force
for three months but subscribers could still make operator-assisted
calls if necessary.
"We have decided to do this because of modem hijacking," Amarasekara
told AFP Sunday.
He said local subscribers were also advised to block international
access on their telephones to prevent unauthorised dialling by
malicious programs, or diallers, installed by some websites.
Some websites surreptitiously install diallers on a surfer's computer
and use the phone connection to dial long-distance telephone numbers,
running up huge bills, he said.
Some calls terminate at porn sites.
Sri Lanka has found that most of the unauthorised calls terminated in
the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, the Wallis and Futana
Islands, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Western Samoa and
Kiribati.
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