FBI looks into calls to Somalia from Erie County line

Erie County Emergency Management Agency officials say they've asked the FBI to investigate more than 120 calls placed last month from a county-owned phone to locations in Somalia.

"This is something I've never seen in my 30-year career," said Bob Hall, telecommunications coordinator for Erie County Emergency Management Agency. "These people know what they're doing."

Exactly who they are remains to be seen, Hall said. There are concerns this could be terrorism related, which is why it was turned over to the FBI.

The calls were made on at least one Sunday about seven weeks ago from a main phone line in the county's Department ofEnvironmental Services. But the calls weren't made directly from that phone.

Someone had actually called the department's phone number from an outside line at an unknown location, then entered into the voicemail system, which wasn't password-protected, Hall said.

From the department's voicemail system, the caller rerouted the call to two phone numbers in Somalia. All told, the unknown talker racked up more than 20 hours of conversation, resulting in a $212 bill, Hall said.

The bizarre incident was noticed by workers at AT&T, the county's phone-service provider, who immediately shut down the long-distance feature and notified the county, Hall said.

Hall contacted Huron police because the Department ofEnvironmental Services offices are in Huron, but he also called the FBI because the calls wereinternational.

Scott Wilson, spokesman for the FBI's Cleveland office, said FBI agents in Sandusky are aware of the phone calls.

"But we can't comment on anything that we're doing," Wilson said. "The county had supplied our office with some of thesenumbers."

AT&T's fraud department agreed to forgive the $212 charge,Hall said, adding he was expecting the bill to be closer to $1,000 or $1,500.

A 30-year employee with a phone company before his current job, Hall said it'll be almost impossible to trace the origin of the calls because they may have been rerouted through multiple locations before reaching the intended numbers in Somalia.

"It makes it virtually impossible to find out where it's coming from," Hall said.

"The call gets regenerated at one number, then regenerated, then regenerated again."

Most of the county's phones are password-protected, but the Department of Environmental Services' number wasn't until after the incident.
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2009/05/28/front/1373770.txt