Villagers have received huge phone bills for premium rate calls they claim they have never made, one of which is to a gay sex chat line
Fourteen households in the New Green area of Bardfield Saling, near Braintree, have received telephone bills which on average are £120 more than they normally pay.
On closer inspection all the bills are charging for premium rate phone calls which start with an 0906 number, which were made in the early hours of May 12 and 17.
The premium rate numbers range from a gay porn chatline to an information line about Australian soap opera Neighbours.
Stephen Woodcraft, of Pollard Villas, Bardfield Saling, said he has contacted BT and complained about his phone bill as he and other villagers say they never made the calls to the premium rate lines.
Mr Woodcraft said: "I've also contacted ICSSTIS (Independent Commission for Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Service) and left a message with them but I've received no reply from anybody so far."
Mr Woodcraft said many people in the village believe their phone numbers have somehow been hacked into by computer users and used to make these calls.
Chris Oram, BT spokesman, said: "The BT network is a very secure network and we take every effort to make sure billing is correct.
"If a complaint has been made it will be looked into by our investigations department."
Published Tuesday June 1, 2004
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