ICSTIS, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services, uses the Emergency Procedure to remove or bar access to a service that is in serious breach of the Code of Practice.
According to ICSTIS, there has been a 500% increase in its use of the Procedure in the first six weeks of 2005 and the regulator will not hesitate to use the Procedure in future, where breaches require urgent remedy.
"We will not allow services which appear willfully misleading and deceptive or which break UK laws," said ICSTIS yesterday.
The regulator highlighted cases involving automated dialling equipment, used for misleading competition-type services, mobile content subscription services targeting children or that are clearly designed to mislead, and any internet dialler services set up without permission or operating contrary to permission certificates issued by ICSTIS.
The Emergency Procedure will be used in all such cases, said ICSTIS.
ICSTIS also expressed concern about cases where there is evidence of serious breach and a real risk that revenues will be paid out before an investigation into the breach can be completed.
"In these cases," said ICSTIS, "it may be right to freeze out-payments pending adjudication and then to fast-track investigations."
Elsewhere, BT announced its latest plans for tackling rogue diallers, a type of premium rate scam.
The scam uses software to install a default dial-up number onto an unwitting person's computer to call a premium rate number, resulting in an unexpectedly expensive call every time the computer connects to the internet.
BT has developed a free software download, known as BT Modem Protection, which will stop a customer's computer dialling higher-cost premium rate or international numbers, even if dialler software is present.
Customers will be warned if their modem begins to dial any number other than a list of 'approved numbers', such as the national call and freephone numbers used by ISPs, said BT.
The other measure is a new early warning alert for customers affected by diallers. If a customer's bill rises dramatically above its usual pattern in a day or a call is made to a destination suspected of operating unregistered diallers, they will receive a warning alert from BT.
A text message will immediately be sent to the customer's landline, alerting them to the sharp increase in their bill. Customers who do not have a text-enabled handset at home will receive it as a voice message.
The two new initiatives, which have been successfully trialled in Northern Ireland, are likely to be available to all BT customers by May.