Fergie's Tech Blog

'Porn-Dialing' Firm Loses Appeal

Declan McCullagh writes on C|Net News:

When an unsuspecting Internet user visited certain Web sites providing "adult entertainment services," they were presented with the opportunity to download and execute a program that would download pornography. This practice is sometimes called a drive-by download.

Once executed, the dialer program worked by telephoning a Madagascar telephone number if a modem was attached to the computer. (The program did include a terms of service agreement that disclosed the cost of the porn was an international phone call, but it's not clear that people were reading the fine print.)

The hapless Internet user got some titillation when the modem connection was made--and a different kind of excitement when a hefty $3.99-a-minute phone bill from AT&T arrived afterward. An average bill was about $250. It warned that "nonpayment of toll charges may result in disconnection of local service."

posted by Fergie @ 3/31/2006 01:11:00 PM