Following an initial investigation, ISP Review UK can today expose the unmetered dialup 'ISP', Unreal-ISP, for selling on Tiscali’s services (without approval) and re-advertising them as something they are not.

Launched during late April 2003 (NEWS), Unreal-ISP's Managing Director, Mark Andrews, appeared to position the ISP as offering the impossible. For £7.99 per month people could subscribe to "no limits, caps or contracts" 24/7 unmetered dialup.

On 23rd April 2003 Unreal-ISP announced that it had begun taking the first 1,000 subscriptions (NEWS). At this pointed we aired a word of caution because they were still on temporary webspace and lacked a secure signup system, which many found both unprofessional and unusual.

For the past month ISPr has been investigating a number of reader concerns, which relate to the operation of Unreal-ISP. The 'ISPs' users had complained of several suspicious elements, including:

- The ability for them to login with Tiscali's own Control Panel (only allowed on Tiscali's accounts).

- E-Mails sent containing other (FAKE) subscriber’s personal data.

- No legally required postal address mentioned on UISP site. Previously known address (one registered to the domain) was tested and found to be invalid.

- The use of PayPal as a billing tool (highly unusual for an ISP).

There were also a number of other things, although given that Tiscali does have vISPs and vISP suppliers, none of this was beyond the bounds of reason. Tiscali is sadly also known for its historic billing errors.

Never the less we began a private investigation to establish the reason behind the highlighted concerns. We were able to contact Tiscali and confirm that the 0845 dialup (not unmetered) on UISPs site was from one of their vISP suppliers, UK2.

It was assumed that UK2 would thus also be able to legitimise the unmetered aspect of Unreal-ISPs 'service', thus we contacted Mr Andrews (UISP MD) in the hope that he could clarify and ease reader concerns. This was especially important given the growing scale of rumours in our forum.

Unfortunately Andrews did not reply, thus we liaised with Tiscali once more to confirm whether or not UK2 was legitimately providing an unmetered service to UISP. Upon further investigation Tiscali's suspicions were raised and an official investigation started.

We agreed with Tiscali not to mention this in public (at least for a few days) so as not to prejudice the situation should it become a police matter. We also shared all our information with Tiscali to aid in their investigation. Today Tiscali has responded to us by issuing this public statement:

Tiscali does not and has never had a commercial relationship with Unreal-ISP. Accounts set up by Unreal-ISP with Tiscali for Unreal customers have been created without Tiscali's approval.

Tiscali has today written to the company to advise it that it is investigating the matter and any illegitimate accounts that have been set up will be cancelled today.
Customers wanting to sign up with Tiscali legitimately should go to http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/

We note that nobody has heard from Unreal-ISP's Managing Director, Mark Andrews, since the 8th July 2003, which is when this started to become a public concern. We have not had a response and fear that Tiscali may not either, although we were able to find some previously legitimate contact details and pass them on.

Sadly Tiscali has also stated that any accounts found to be registered via UISP will be cut-off, although given the problem with FAKE personal details, this is probably a wise move. This is not the end of the story and there will be more news to follow, no doubt many of you will have comments of your own to make.