Important information for Internet users
Recently Internet users have frequently received invoices for long-distance
calls for significant amounts (tens or hundreds thousand drams) from ArmenTel
cjsc. Angry users have asserted that they had made no calls to “ a satellite or
exotic islands”.
It mostly happens to users visiting commercial or porno sites with free access
that doesn’t require credit card payments. For inexperienced users the offer
that doesn’t require a credit card payment seems to be a free of charge offer.
However, it is well-known that “no pay, no play”…
It is unlikely that an inexperienced user, especially if he/she is not good at
English or is desiring to quickly move forward, would read the many-page text of
the contract that appears in a small window and pay a special attention to the
following passage: "By using this connection, your computer will terminate the
modem connection to your local internet service provider. Your modem will dial
an International telephone number. Please check with your telecom service
provider or your long distance carrier for the exact per-minute charge of the
call. This call will appear on your phone bill as an ordinary & anonymous call".
This means that your computer terminates the current local Internet connection
and makes a long-distance phone call to get connected to a remote server. You
are advised to check with your telephone company for a per-minute charge of the
call and informed that the call will appear on your telephone company bill as an
ordinary or anonymous call.
Upon pressing the button “Please, Enter Now” you launch the program that
automatically disconnects you from your Internet provider and makes a direct
long-distance call to an international number. The user gets commercial or porno
information. It doesn’t occur to an inexperienced user that this is not the
information he/she receives free via Internet, instead they are using a private
commercial communication network. The information is provided directly from the
provider’s server and is to be paid for according to international tariffs. The
per-minute charge for such a connection is high. Lots of dollars.
It should be noted that no matter whether the user has read the warning or not,
upon pressing the button “Please, Enter Now” he voluntarily agrees to everything
that he has been offered. In this situation the Internet provider doesn’t bear
any responsibility as it has nothing to do with long-distance calls, just as
cars producers and sellers don’t bear responsibility for crashes or producers of
strong drinks for a drunk man’s robbery. It is obvious that the user connected
to the Internet is personally responsible for the risk, expenses and losses he
might meet with while using this service. Anyway, fraud on the Internet is just
like fraud in everyday life.
So it is obvious that the above mentioned ArmenTel bills MUST be paid as the
user without his/her knowledge did utilize the commercial services of
international telephone communication.
Dolphin Ltd. is obliged to warn its users to be cautious while visiting shady
sites. It is also possible to blockade long-distance calls from your telephone
line. Your local ArmenTel branch can provide the necessary information on the
above mentioned service.
Dolphin Ltd.
Internet Service