Hacking Results in a $52,000 Phone Bill
A Winnipeg businessman says a case of phone fraud resulted in a monthly bill ballooning from $500 to more than $52,000. Alan Davison, the owner of HUB Computer Solutions, says a hacker got into his office phone system. After the incident, Davidson called Manitoba Telecom Services and found out that hundreds of calls were recently made to Bulgaria. This massive telephone bill is due January 2. Davison became suspicious about a week ago, however, by the time he contacted MTS, it was too late.
He thinks the phone company is responsible for catching the problem before he did. Saying how a credit card company would know right away if fraud took place on a given card, the phone company is negligent for not also implementing similar safeguards in place. MTS spokesman Greg Burch stated that the company will admit responsibility if its own equipment was involved. In this case, it was not. Davison still says that if he hadn’t called the company, his monthly bill would have been double the $52,000 amount, and corporate responsibility isn’t being practiced here. Davison said his insurance will not cover the loss.
December 21st, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I feel awful for the guy just reading about his accidental $52,000 cell bill. That’s terrible! In response (and so no one else suffers a similar fate), I wanted to write a follow-up post on the topic of cutting cell costs. Specifically, thousands of people are achieving substantial wireless savings through the website http://www.fixmycellbill.com (by a company that I work for called Validas) that on average currently saves T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and US Cellular customers 22 percent, equating to $482 annually, off their cell bills.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how it actually works. Validas analyzes your online cell bill for free and calculates how much money you could be saving. It turns out that eight of ten wireless customers are paying more than they need to for their plans. Validas fixes these discrepancies by tailoring a customer’s plan to fit their specific needs. If you choose, Validas provides a highly detailed and personalized adjustment report that, for five bucks, is emailed to your wireless provider in industry specific format in order to implement Validas’s cash saving changes to your plan. If Validas can save you more than $5 on your bill, then this obviously provides a very cost effective solution.
Validas is becoming known as the preeminent advocate for the wireless consumer. Check out a feature about Validas on The Big Idea with CNBC’s Donny Deutsch at http://www.cnbc.com/id/22782456/. Validas has also been profiled in the New York Times and Business Week.
Happy holidays, and good luck to everyone reading on lowering your cell bills.
Dylan