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Author Topic: 100,000 hoax calls prompt plea from Dublin Zoo  (Read 2810 times)

Offline rbcp

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100,000 hoax calls prompt plea from Dublin Zoo
« on: April 24, 2008, 08:25:22 PM »
from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080424/tod-ireland-animal-offbeat-7f81b96.html

DUBLIN (AFP) - Dublin Zoo appealed to the public on Thursday not to be taken in by hoax text messages that have led to its switchboard being jammed by an estimated 100,000 calls in two weeks.

People are receiving text messages to their mobile phones asking them to ring the zoo's number for an "urgent message."

The texts are signed with names like G. Raffe, C. Lion, Rory Lyons and Anna Conda.

"This is proving to be a very serious waste of our time and resources," the zoo said.

The zoo's marketing manager Veronica Crisp told RTE state radio they had previously got hoax calls on a few days of the year like April Fool's Day but the current situation "was getting out of hand."

"It might be kind of funny the first few times but we have lost our sense of humour now with calls coming in at a rate of about 13 a minute. The system is pretty much choked," she said.

Crisp said the police and Ireland's communications watchdog had been unable to help.


This story is great.  It's the same thing we've done to people before - setting up an automated script to text thousands of cell phones to call someone.  I haven't done it since the early 2000's, but I imagine the impact would be much worse today since everyone subscribes to texting these days.
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Offline nova

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Re: 100,000 hoax calls prompt plea from Dublin Zoo
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2008, 10:31:35 AM »
thats not really many if you think about it
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Offline rbcp

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Re: 100,000 hoax calls prompt plea from Dublin Zoo
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2008, 10:37:58 AM »
Yeah, 14,000 calls a day.  What amateurs.
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Offline MIB

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Re: 100,000 hoax calls prompt plea from Dublin Zoo
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2008, 11:22:56 AM »
This has potential to be a phone mob operation.   ;D

MIB
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ViolentJ

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Re: 100,000 hoax calls prompt plea from Dublin Zoo
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2008, 10:56:12 PM »
Quote from: rbcp on April 25, 2008, 10:37:58 AM
Yeah, 14,000 calls a day.  What amateurs.

+1 for the amateurs comment!
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Offline Lestan Gregor

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Re: 100,000 hoax calls prompt plea from Dublin Zoo
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2008, 11:00:12 PM »
+1 for the +1 for the amateurs comment!
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Offline rbcp

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Re: 100,000 hoax calls prompt plea from Dublin Zoo
« Reply #6 on: April 28, 2008, 07:16:19 AM »
Quote from: ViolentJ on April 27, 2008, 10:56:12 PM
Quote from: rbcp on April 25, 2008, 10:37:58 AM
Yeah, 14,000 calls a day.  What amateurs.

+1 for the amateurs comment!

+1 for giving me +1!
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