Accounting for net use no easy task

Chatting online can be fun but the line account holder can later get an expensive surprise - thanks to hackers.
MICHAEL FOREMAN reports.

Like many hacking victims, the first time that Leigh-based locksmith Paul Rowntree realised that his internet account had been compromised was when the bill arrived.

As a user of Xtra's hourly rate service, Mr Rowntree's internet charges are added to his monthly telephone bill, which usually totals between $200 and $300.

So when, last October, he received a bill of almost $700, he suspected a hacker was at work.

These suspicions were confirmed when he contacted Xtra, and was told that on one Saturday in the previous month more than 100 separate logins had been recorded on his net account.

Several times on that day, two or three people had accessed the account at the same time.

This clearly showed that the internet charges were being run up by unauthorised users, rather than by Mr Rowntree or someone in his household.

Mr Rowntree asked Xtra to trace the origin of the calls through Telecom, but he was warned that the procedure would take six weeks and would cost $200 if no unauthorised users were discovered.

Meanwhile, Mr Rowntree began his own investigations.

He was aware that his 16-year-old son regularly used chat services. These allow users to communicate with friends online, but they are also notorious entry points for Trojans - programs that can collect passwords and other private information.

Inquiries at a local high school had revealed that a student had been selling internet login names and passwords including, it was believed, Mr Rowntree's.

"He was charging $10 a time and he sold it to God knows how many people."

But Mr Rowntree could not be sure of the identity of the hacker until the results of a line trace came back from Telecom.

After almost a year of waiting, Mr Rowntree had still not heard anything, so he contacted the Herald.

Last week, we spoke to Xtra marketing manager Chris Thompson, who said line traces took time, and that hacking cases were sometimes deferred in favour of requests that were deemed to be more urgent, such as murder investigations.

But an Xtra spokeswoman called us the next day to tell us the trace had been completed. Unfortunately, the results were "not 100 per cent conclusive" as they showed only that Mr Rowntree's number had definitely been used to access his net account.

Xtra refunded $416.20 to Mr Rowntree's account, but he is not completely satisfied.

"I've got my money back but the line trace didn't come back with the result that I was hoping for. The guy has got away with it."