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.Alfredsson@kau.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