Premium call ripoff, not virus caused

ressem

Two neighbouring businesses have received bills with hundreds of ~10 second calls to Irish premium number 1541 xxx xxx. There were made in the middle of the night, from locked offices for hours on end. They use broadband over a LAN and have no computer equipment or fax machines connected to these lines, just basic eircom phones.

Is there anywhere I can determine the benificiary of the call. Comreg don't list 1541 in their publicly available number list. So I've to wait for Regtel to get back.

As I see it the most vunerable point at that time of night is the buildings common comms room, where someone with a laptop could connect to the lines at the eircom point.

Can anyone here see possibilities that I could be missing? I don't want to jump to conclusions based on the recorded message, in case it's an impersonation of a legit service.

Has anyone heard of 3rd partys (not the provider or Eircom) benefitting from premium calls, based on commission or similar?

Thanks in advance

andrew163

ressem wrote:

As I see it the most vunerable point at that time of night is the buildings common comms room, where someone with a laptop could connect to the lines at the eircom point.

Is the room recorded on CCTV?

ressem

No, building's home to a collection of self employed sole traders, with a door that's difficult to close after being broken open before.

Having a camera system protecting an empty cabinet and phone ports was never considered, even the lock was neglected.

Our man in Havana

The fact is who ever owns a 15xx number is making money from it.

Did you see the tv show hustle? In it the con man set up a premium rate number costing £50 a min. He would then fake breaking down etc and ask an unsupsecting person to use their phone, where he would call his number and rake in the cash.

logic

heard of a situation like that before, where the night security guard had set up a premium line and would ring it from the phones in the offices where he was on guard.