local routing problem...

Somewhat OT, but this audience will appreciate it more than
most.  This
item appeared in RISKS Digest.


Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 09:55:50 +0100
From: Stefan Alfredsson <Stefan.Alfredssonkau.se>
Subject: Cellphone in USB charger became default route

His cellphone charger was broken, so 17 year old Christoffer
connected
his phone, a Sony Ericsson k800i, via USB to his parents
computer and
left it to charge over night.

A month later, he got a bill of SEK 6911  (about USD
$1100).

It turns out that the phone became the "default
broadband" when plugged
in via USB, and his long-running downloads were done over
the phone
instead of his broadband connection. The common price per
Mbyte
GPRS/UMTS data traffic is SEK 10 to 15 (about USD $1.5 to
$2.3), which
would correspond to about 500 Mbyte downloaded data.

Christoffer claims "there was no warning to allow the
phone to take
over the connection. I did not even know it was
possible".  According
to the operator Tele2, he must pay the bill even if it was a
mistake.
They concluded that the phone modem had been used, but could
not tell
how it happened. The operator were not aware of previous
incidents, but
claims that "there is software to link the phone to the
computer and
start the phone Internet function, but it's not possible for
the
computer to do this on its own".

Original article in Swedish:
  
http://www.aftonbladet.se/goteborg/article1141706.ab