Vodafone NZ Fraud Team Investigating Phone Number On Faked Release

23rd Jun 2010 07:24

By Lucy Craymer and Rebecca Howard Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WELLINGTON (Dow Jones)--Vodafone New Zealand said Wednesday its fraud team is looking into whether it was one of their customers involved in the distribution of two fake company news releases published on news release services Business Wire and PR Newswire. Both releases -- the first about General Mills Inc. (GIS) published last Wednesday on PR Newswire and the second about Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (JAV) published on Business Wire days later -- had the same phone number on the bottom of them with a New Zealand dialling code. Vodafone New Zealand spokesman Paul Brislen confirmed that Vodafone's fraud team were investigating but couldn't confirm whether or not the number was a Vodafone number. The "021" prefix on the attached number is normally indicative of a Vodafone number, although a former customer could potentially have taken their number with them when they changed providers. A man answered that phone number last week, Monday and Wednesday and gave different names on each occasion. Dow Jones was not able to independently confirm his identity, the veracity of his statements or that he was the originator of the release although he purported to be. Investigators with the New Zealand Police Cyber Crime unit said the case had yet to be referred to them although cases did on occasion come from their counterparts at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. New Zealand Interpol also was unable to confirm whether they had been asked to follow up on the case. Business Wire said Tuesday the Javelin release had been reported to the New York bureau of the FBI and it was being treated as a criminal investigation. --By Lucy Craymer, Dow Jones Newswires; 64-4-471-5990; [email protected] additional reporting by Anjail Cordeiro and Nat Worden, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2200; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 23, 2010 02:24 ET (06:24 GMT)