Victims of Moldova Scheme to Get Refund

Internet users who were burned by a scheme that surreptitiously connected their computers to telephone numbers for the country of Moldova will get $2.74 million in refunds for long-distance charges, the Federal Trade Commission said. The FTC said the refunds are part of two settlements it reached with several firms and individuals who used a supposedly free software program to connect more than 38,000 consumers to costly international phone numbers--in effect hijacking their computer modems. The settlements involve last February’s disclosure that some Internet users had been charged for international long-distance calls after downloading software that supposedly provided free access to adult entertainment sites on the World Wide Web. The FTC said the software secretly disconnected computer users from their regular Internet service and directed their computer modems to dial a number in Moldova, in Eastern Europe. Computer users remained connected to the long-distance line until they turned off their computers, and racked up charges of about $2 a minute during that time.