Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ

British Telecom is pressing ahead with a vigorous campaign to sell its
telephone charge cards, even though it has been warned of a loophole in
security that leaves customers vulnerable to fraudsters.

Three months after a card holder alerted BT to the risk, the company
has done nothing to warn its million or more charge card customers or those
it is now encouraging to sign up. Nor has the telecommunications watchdog
Oftel issued any warnings to card holders.

BT’s Chargecard is like a credit card with a number printed on the surface.
Each card holder also has a secret personal identification number, or PIN.
To make a call, the card holder dials 144, keys in the secret numbers and
then the telephone number.

The flaw in the system is that many private telephone switchboards now
have a call logger which registers and prints out all numbers called from
all extensions. Hotels use loggers to bill their guests and offices use
them to prevent staff from making private calls. But the loggers also print
out the authorisation code, including the PIN (This Week, 2 November). Anyone
with access to the logger would also have access to the card holders’ accounts
and could use them to make free calls.

In October, BT said it was ‘planning to make the public aware now that
the subject has come up’. But three months later, BT has launched a massive
advertising campaign – without any warning about the risk of fraud. Anyone
signing up for a charge card must also sign a declaration that they will
be responsible for charges made using BT cards ‘whether the use is authorised
or unauthorised’.

Charles Household, product manager for BT’s charge cards, says he ‘shares
concern’ on loggers. BT, he explains, is currently in discussion with Oftel,
on ‘how best to resolve this difficult issue’.

BT says it is ‘working on a new section on security for the Chargecard
user guide’, which should be available ‘soon’, and is planning a mail shot
to all cardholders which will advise on card security.

‘Until a way forward has been agreed,’ says Household, ‘we do not wish
to promote the fraud by drawing undue attention to it’. Household says that
if a customer is a viciim of fraud involving loggers, ‘ST would view the
matter sympathetically’.