A $773 Cell Phone Bill... Whoops?

[Kris Kumar]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mpx200.org/forums/index.php?s=9dd2a8f975d1a75fdf97a309a56252d2&showtopic=7184' target='_blank'>http://www.mpx200.org/forums/index.php?s=9dd2a8f975d1a75fdf97a309a56252d2&showtopic=7184</a><br /><br /></div><i>"An 18 year old college student, new to the world of cell phones logged 6,624 minutes on her T-Mobile bill because her phone was supposedly misconfigured by a friend and it called a T-Mobile server constantly. The first bill was 160 pages long!"</i><br /><br />8O I have a tough time accepting the taxes on my cell phone bill. A $773 bill that is 160 pages long will knock me unconscious. Here is my favourite quote from the news article <i>"One authority supposed the phone could have come under the control of a cell phone-borne computer virus, a threat cybercops have hypothesized but never seen. A phone manufacturer wondered if the phone had been misidentified as stolen."</i> All I have to say is that keep a watchful eye on your Smartphone, you never know what it might be up to. :lol:

[xxpinballxx]

I have a buddy who got his son a phone for him "incase of emergencies" Which to a teenager with his liscense means "hey lets call the gang to go for a ride." His bill was a low rate plane with the minimum of minutes through at&amp;t I believe. The first months bill with the prorated first month and second month plus activation came to over 1300 dollars.

Needless to say the kid has a roadside emergency kit in his car and no phone! That was about a year ago and he still gets upset if you mention it.

[Airscanner]

Phone malware seems to have already run up fat bills on unsuspecting users -- you may like to read our analysis of the Mosquito dialer Trojan:

http://informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=327994

But that only targets symbian phones; Windows Mobile devices have been immune as far as I know.

Brad

[Pony99CA]

"An 18 year old college student, new to the world of cell phones logged 6,624 minutes on her T-Mobile bill because her phone was supposedly misconfigured by a friend and it called a T-Mobile server constantly. The first bill was 160 pages long!"
When I first read this, I was surprised that 6,624 minutes only cost $773. Maybe T-Mobile includes more minutes than Verizon and doesn't charge as much for them, but even with 1,000 free minutes and $0.20 per minute, that would be $924.80. Maybe free nights and weekends kept the bill down. :-D

Steve

[Mike Temporale]

Phone malware seems to have already run up fat bills on unsuspecting users -- you may like to read our analysis of the Mosquito dialer Trojan:

http://informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=327994

But that only targets symbian phones; Windows Mobile devices have been immune as far as I know.

Brad

Dialer Trogans? I haven't read about them since the mid 90's. Of course, back then it was desktops and landlines, but it's still the same concept.

Providing there isn't a bug/hole in the application security model of the Smartphone; Would a Dialer Trogan even work on Windows Mobile device? Can any application dial a call without the users intervention?

[Mr.Phil]

Hmm... I smell myth... misconfigured.... to surf the internet.... and CALLED a T-mobile server??? Not sure how T-mo charges for data, but somehow I doubt it is in "minutes" rather than Kb. I can ... barely... buy some sort of drastic error... ?live streaming video? but the words used to describe this problem do not line up for someone who is "technically proficient"

[skibee]

Sheesh -- $770 something phone bill???

I almost had a heart attack the last (and only time) i got one over $300

[joeonsunset]

Needless to say the kid has a roadside emergency kit in his car and no phone! That was about a year ago and he still gets upset if you mention it.

He should just give his son a cell phone with no service agreement. At least he could dial 911! (Or better yet, a prepaid phone.)

[Islanti]

pfft. That's small-time. I had a $900+ T-Mobile bill last July.

I didn't have anywhere near those kind of minutes, though. I was roaming in China at the time. At $3/min. the bill added up quickly. :)

[Sven Johannsen]

Not sure how T-mo charges for data, but somehow I doubt it is in "minutes" rather than Kb.
Actually the T-Mobile Data plans are neither minutes nor kB. Most are unlimited usage but what you can access is limited by the plan you have. My $20/mo plan (because of my T-Mo voice plan) is unlimited anything. Some of the cheaper plans limit VPN or IM.

Text messaging, and MMS is a different animal altogether and is different than data access. Charges for that stuff can add up, is popular with the younger crowd, and is what I believe is the reason you can't buy a decent phone without a camera these days.

[Islanti]

Hmm... I smell myth... misconfigured.... to surf the internet.... and CALLED a T-mobile server??? Not sure how T-mo charges for data, but somehow I doubt it is in "minutes" rather than Kb. I can ... barely... buy some sort of drastic error... ?live streaming video? but the words used to describe this problem do not line up for someone who is "technically proficient"
Perhaps they configured the phone to call a dial-up ISP phone number (often provided at colleges) to check email, rather than using GPRS? That combined with a 1 minute email check frequency could cause something like this.