Money-saving plan reveals hacker

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

When Christchurch-based Xtra user Donna Brydon switched her internet plan from a flat-rate account to an hourly-charge rate last June she thought she would save money.

But making the change uncovered a hacker who was stealing hundreds of dollars of connection time.

Ms Brydon's children were the main internet users in her household so when they moved to a free service she changed from the $39.95 monthly flat rate to a $2.50 per hour plan.

As a light internet user, she expected her bill to decrease by around $10 a month.

But 10 days later when she checked her account, she was horrified to discover she had run up a bill of over $300.

Ms Brydon's first thought was that her children had been using her account but she noticed there had been several log-on times during the day when they would have been at school.

Ms Brydon, who runs a secretarial business from home, said she would never allow the children to use the phone for any length of time during the day.

She soon concluded that a hacker had been at work. However, although she changed her log-on password every two weeks, the charges continued to mount, leaving her with a bill of over $1000.

Ms Brydon called Xtra but she claims she was told the charges must have resulted from her children's use of her account.

"I feel powerless. Apart from changing my password, there is nothing I can do," Ms Brydon said. "I have been hacked constantly, I think, since about November 1999, but it was not that noticeable until the account went from flat rate to hourly rate.

Now I owe $788.55 and I have another $308-odd plus GST to come on the next account."

Ms Brydon said she asked Xtra to trace the internet log-on times to establish where the calls came from but was told this would take two months and she would be charged $200.

Xtra marketing manager Chris Thompson said it seemed likely that Ms Brydon had been the victim of a Trojan Horse virus. Unless this was cleaned from her system, a hacker would be able to gain access to her account regardless of how many times she changed her password.

Mr Thompson said he understood Ms Brydon had now purchased an anti-virus package which would fix the problem. Usually, customers with similar difficulties were instructed how to remove Trojans as a matter of course but Mr Thompson conceded Ms Brydon had not been so advised.

He said it was also Xtra's standard policy to credit large hourly accounts down to the equivalent price of the flat-rate account and he was investigating why this had not happened.

Xtra has told Ms Brydon that the company will wipe the $788.55 bill and will investigate the $308 she owes on her next account.

"She shouldn't have to worry about it at all," Mr Thompson said.

He said that Ms Brydon would probably not have to pay the $200 for tracing the log-on source either.

Tracing calls was a "time-consuming, people-intensive process" that Telecom would bill Xtra for, but Xtra would pass on these charges to Ms Brydon only if the calls had been made from her number.

Mr Thompson said Xtra received about one call a day from internet users who believed they were being hacked, but about half of them turned out to be false claims.

"People are quick to assume they have been hacked but that is sometimes incorrect."

However, Mr Thompson denied people who complained of hacking attacks were "guilty until proved innocent."

"We treat them as valid complaints while they are being investigated.

"Customers should contact us as soon as they suspect they have been hacked, but meanwhile running up-to-date, anti-virus software offers the best protection. People should also be cautious about opening attachments in e-mails from people they don't know."