Aol Blocks Direct Access In Russia

America Online has cut direct access for its users in Russia because people were signing on to the service using stolen credit cards.

Rather than cut off service altogether, AOL has blocked local telephone access, which is expensive in Russia and grew costly when AOL was stuck with the bill.

“It was brought to our attention that people were signing on using fraudulent cards. When we went to collect on the accounts we found out they were stolen,” spokeswoman Susan Porter said by phone from the company’s Dulles, Va., offices.

Users of the fraudulent credit card numbers bought hours of time on-line. Because local telephone access is almost three times more expensive in Russia than in the United States, the financial costs were high, Porter said.

Prior to the cutoff, AOL customers in Russia could dial in to local phone numbers throughout the country to access the service, while only paying for a local call. This was especially useful to the many American businesses who use AOL as a means to access e-mail and the Internet from within the country.

AOL subscribers can still access their accounts, but must now get to them via an account on one of the Russian Internet services such as Glasnet, Russian Online or Matrix.