Hackers stick small businesses with five-figure phone bills

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This article was published 06/06/2019 (2479 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg business owner said she’s frustrated about a phone bill she got for more than $60,000 last week — and she’s worried it points to a bigger problem with phone security.

Nadine Speirs, who owns Metal Depot Ltd., received a bill for $61,332.97 from Bell MTS for long-distance calls she said neither she nor any of her employees made.

“When they said, ‘What kind of arrangements do you want to make for payment?’ I’m like, ‘I’m not paying this. This is ridiculous,’” said Speirs. “I literally would have to mortgage my house, or take out a loan, or sell my business.”

Speirs said her phone troubles began near the end of April, when she got a call from Bell MTS alerting her to suspicious activity on her phone, including about $21,000 in calls to Cuba. She said she was told her system may have been hacked, and asked how often she changes her voicemail password.

The telecommunications company sent out a technician to fix the issue, for which Speirs said she paid $145.

Speirs said she assumed the problem was fixed, until she got another call alerting her to more suspicious activity on her business’ phone — this time, for calls to the Philippines. The company sent out another technician, this time at no cost.

Speirs said she didn’t hear anything else from the company until late last week, when a package arrived at her business: a bill so thick it needed to be mailed in a box.

“For $62,000, I’m thinking somebody should have showed up at my door with that bill gift-wrapped,” Speirs said.

Speirs said a Bell MTS employee phoned her later Thursday and offered to reduce her bill to around $17,600.

“She said they are prepared to removed all of the Filipino calls and reduce the Cuba calls to their cost,” Speirs said.

“I said that’s still unacceptable, but send it to me. She said I’m not allowed to put it in writing because it’s a one-time offer. I said, it’s not acceptable.

“I’ve sent everything to my lawyer at this point.”

Since receiving her bill, Speirs said she’s started getting calls and messages from other people who say they’ve had the same thing happen to them — including another business owner in the St. Boniface Industrial Park, only about a kilometre away from Metal Depot Ltd.

Durga Liske, who owns Daher Management Inc., said he got a call on his cell phone from Bell MTS at the beginning of May. Liske said the company told him it looked like his phone had been hacked, so they set up a service call.

Later that month, Liske got his phone bill. It was for $12,210.76.

“They basically said, ‘It’s not our problem. We provide you with a dial tone, and the rest is up to you.'”–Nadine Speirs

“This is absurd that this would be acceptable,” Liske said. “That’s just so astronomically large. It’s crazy for a small business owner.”

Eventually, Liske said the phone company agreed to take $2,500 off their portion of the bill — which still left him on the hook for nearly $10,000.

Liske said he’s contacted his insurance provider and the police to look into his options.

He contacted Bell MTS again Wednesday to request a copy of the technician’s report, and said he also spoke to Speirs on Thursday about splitting costs on legal representation.

Speirs said the aftermath of receiving her bill has made her worry about whether her experience points to a larger issue for consumers.

“They basically said, ‘It’s not our problem. We provide you with a dial tone, and the rest is up to you,’” she said.

“I’m quite fearful that this is happening more often than we know, and people are just paying it thinking that they have no choice. And that’s wrong.”

caitlyn.gowriluk@freepress.mb.ca