November 21, 2002 |
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| TOKYO, JAPAN—NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) announced today that the company's regular international phone service to Diego Garcia (country code: 246) and the Seychelles (248) will be suspended effective December 16 to prevent problems with customer fraud. Many NTT Com dial-up customers have reported being invoiced with expensive phone bills after they unknowingly dialed international numbers via their computers. Under the scam, if a person accesses certain sites on the Internet, software is automatically downloaded and secretly replaces the local dial-up access number stored in the computer with an international number. Although NTT Com has disseminated information about the fraud via monthly statements mailed to customers and the company's website, as well as provided free software that can be downloaded from the company website to monitor and warn of the scam, it has continued to receive large numbers of inquiries and complaints. Services to Diego Garcia and Seychelles that will be suspended: - 0033 direct calls (including from mobile, PHS and public phones) - 00347 calls with charge announcement service at end of call Services to Diego Garcia and Seychelles that will remain available: - 0034111 calls using World Prepaid Card - 0034112 calls using credit card - 000345 calls via international virtual private networks About NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) NTT Com, a Tokyo-based subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, provides long-distance and international services for voice, video and data communication reaching more than 200 countries. NTT Com also provides world-class IP services under the NTT/VERIO brand, as well as managed data, multimedia and additional services under the Arcstar brand. For more information, please visit www.ntt.com |
