$1 million phone bill!!

[William]

Those naughty, naughty boys:

Phones stolen in Iraq used for sex chatlines

David Hencke, Westminster correspondent
Thursday March 2, 2006
The Guardian

It certainly was not part of Britain's plans to win the hearts and minds of the people of Iraq. But the Foreign Office has been apparently paying for an adult sex chatline in a Baghdad street for 17 months without knowing it.


The Foreign Office has had to tell MPs that an investigation into how a diplomat lost two satellite phones in Iraq has nothing to do with terrorism but more to do with a budding entrepreneur and a telephone porn network.

FO officials had already admitted that the lost phones had cost them £594,000 in unauthorised phone bills but it is now bracing itself for an extremely critical report from the Commons public accounts committee on how it came to pay phone bills, which at one stage hit £212,000 in one month, without asking questions.

Sir Michael Jay, permanent secretary at the FO, told MPs: "All the pattern of usage of these phones ... points to some kind of criminal activity ... It was almost as though they were taken and used as a kind of mobile phone booth at the end of the street where anybody could come along and use them.

"After that, they appear to have been used for a couple of scams based on what are known as personal numbers and premium numbers."
Sir Michael said the premium rate numbers were used for betting agencies or adult phone lines, and that one of the FO phones had been "on virtually full time with the person who is, as it were, making the call getting some benefit from it."

Sir Michael said initial inquiries had revealed a series of blunders. The phones were already activated when they were sent to Baghdad and they were not properly logged in - so no one realised at first that they had been stolen. None of the bills were initially challenged until people realised the phones had gone missing. The rules at all embassies have now been changed and no phone is sent abroad already activated for use.
Edward Leigh, chairman of the committee, told him: "In terms of this mobile phone being on permanently at the end of a street in Iraq, that gives a whole new meaning to winning hearts and minds in Iraq, but it is quite serious."

Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for Great Grimsby, whose phone had been swiped and used to dial a betting agency, asked if the FO had tried to get its money back.

Since the disclosure, Richard Bacon, Tory MP for Norfolk South, has made further inquiries: "It appears that they haven't been able to find the culprit or trace the phone. You would have thought having spent hundreds of millions of pounds setting up a sophisticated listening centre at GCHQ it would be very easy to trace a satellite phone and who was operating it in Iraq. But it doesn't appear anything was done. It just beggars belief that the FO kept paying the bills."
Sir Michael has promised to try to get the money back. But so far the only thing FO staff appeared to have done is to try to ring the premium rate number. Sir Michael told MPs they did not get a reply.


Source: The Guardian

[ChiangMai noon]

$1 million dollars is a little excessive, I quite agree.
I am reminded of the time I moved from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, bringing along my computer that I'd used down in that poopit some of you call home.
Unfortunately, being dense and somewhat trusting, I was to hook up my internet connection without changing the dial up number.
3 weeks and lots of hours listening to radio 5 later, I was presented with a 22,00 baht telephone bill.
I am an arse.

[William]

CMn: why does that sound so much like something I would do

[NickA]

3 weeks and lots of hours watching sheep porn later, I was presented with a 220,000 baht telephone bill. I am an arse.

Hmmm...

[dirtydog]

3 weeks and lots of hours watching sheep porn later, I was presented with a 220 baht telephone bill. and yes I take it up the arse.

Hmmm...

hmmmmm

[mrsquirrel]

Quote:
Originally Posted by NickA
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon
3 weeks and lots of hours watching sheep porn later, I was presented with a 220 baht telephone bill. and yes I take it up the arse.

Hmmm...

hmmmmm - That feels good Nicka go on rub my prostate harder go on you know you want to.

I never knew you were into that Dog

[DrAndy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by NickA
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon
3 weeks and lots of hours watching sheep porn later, I was presented with a 220 baht telephone bill. and yes I take it up the arse.

Hmmm...

hmmmmm - That feels good Nicka go on rub my prostate harder go on you know you want to.

I never knew you were into that Dog fucking thing. Come over and I will show you how to really get that bitch of mine squirming

hmmmm

[William]

[ChiangMai noon]

Back on topic, I meant to say way up there that my first telephone bill in Chiang mai was a wopping 22,000 baht, not 2200 as previously said.

[DrAndy]

that is whopping CMN!! how were the sheep/

[mrsquirrel]

that is whopping great big cock CMN!! Be careful you don't hurt the sheep/

I am sure the sheep can accomodate him Dr. A.