Telecommunications firm Etisalat has warned its customers to secure their lines against hackers following a complaint of a company owner.
Indian expat Ashok Chaturvedi reported that he was billed Dh24, 000 for landline calls to Mauritania in West Africa.
Chaturvedi was charged Dh24, 469 for the whole month of June after “10 days of unabated calling to one single number in Mauritania” even he has no contacts there as he does not have any business made in the said place, as per a report from Gulf News.
He narrated that “the first call started at 5am and afterwards it ran 24/7 without a break every two seconds”. He said he has CCTV footage that can prove the phone was not in use during the time.
He said that in his 20 years of business, he has never exceeded Dh3, 000 a month which was why he was shocked that the bill bloated in the month of June.
Etisalat promised the amount would be offset if the complaint was valid but Chaturvedi was still forced to pay the bill as his phone lines were cut, which affected his work.
The report furthered that Etisalat has always reminded its customers to make sure their personal devices are protected to avoid being hacked. Here are some ways to secure your phone lines:
*Don’t use default voicemail PIN numbers
*Delete voicemail boxes that are no longer in use from staff leaving etc.
*Cancel call forwarding or outbound call ability from your voicemail altogether.
*Make sure you aren’t using the default pabx (private branch exchange) admin password
*Totally eliminate after hours calling except for emergency or predetermined phone numbers.
*Disable DISA (direct inward system access) unless absolutely necessary.
*Check your phone bills for after hours, weekend, holiday use and any weird numbers that are being called.
