business phones left for hours calling premium rate number

[ally500]

Hi

i work for a small electronics company in yorkshire, me and the boss walked in this morning to find all 5 of our phones
of the hook. Each one was calling an adult chatline, so more than likely a premium rate. We have no clue as to who could of done
this, he did check with the alarm company to see when it was last disabled, they said it was 10:57pm last night.
So they must of had a key and the alarm code to get it, no sign of any forced entry.
The police have been informed, but dont really seem to interested.
Any advice on what we should do next, is it possible to trace from the bill or BT as to where the money has gone, is their a chance we could get it back.
If all 5 phones have been calling this number for over 10 hours, as you can imagine the bill will be massive.

thankyou for any help/advice

ally b

[Eric Mc]

Must HAVE, not must OF.

Sorry for being pedantic but this particular mistake drives me wild.

Sounds like a vindictive employee to me. Who's had a P45 recently?

[_dobbo_]

Jesus! That sounds painful.

However I think there are preventative measures in place to stop a line from being connected to a premium rate number for these lengths of time. I might be wrong. ICSTIS would be the useful source of information, I'd also be straight on the phone to BT to see what your options are here.

Disgruntled current or ex employee? Or disgruntled current or ex partner?

The least you should be looking at is new alarm codes all round and new locks. Hope you don't get stung for massive bills!

[d1bble]

Nasty. That’s a new one though, im sure BT and the like 'cap' your phone bill, so that you can’t go over a certain amount in a month i.e. £1000.00.

I went a little OTT on GPRS (laptop hooked up to mobile modem) years ago and found that i couldn’t make any calls, when i contacted the phone company they explained what ive just said.

[d1bble]

ally500 said:

Hi i work for a small electronics company in yorkshire, me and the boss walked in this morning to find all 5 of our phones of the hook. Each one was calling an adult chatline, so more than likely a premium rate. We have no clue as to who could of done this, he did check with the alarm company to see when it was last disabled, they said it was 10:57pm last night. So they must of had a key and the alarm code to get it, no sign of any forced entry. The police have been informed, but dont really seem to interested. Any advice on what we should do next, is it possible to trace from the bill or BT as to where the money has gone, is their a chance we could get it back. If all 5 phones have been calling this number for over 10 hours, as you can imagine the bill will be massive. thankyou for any help/advice ally b

How much are premium rate phone numbers in this day and age?

£2 a minute? (just a guess) (Thats a 6k phone bill..)

[adam g]

My understanding is that BT will indeed charge you. Assuming the lines that have been called are run legally, ahve the price read out to the caller on connection then you don't really have much recourse with BT or the operators of the lines. Even if they are run illegally it is not easy to get the funds back.

I suspect the only way you could recover the funds is to sue whoever made the calls which clearly requires you be able to proove who that was.

[Jasper Gilder]

Check out who owns th elines - BT should tell you. One of my clients had a similar thing - except the lines were silent no Dirty Doris dogging it in the dirt etc. Turned out the operator was the night shift security guard. Quite an elegant fraud - put an 0898 bar on your lines!!