Downtown businesses report fraudulent activity with their phone systems

Two downtown businesses in the same building reported fraudulent activity with their phones services Monday morning, according to Redmond police reports.

Two downtown businesses in the same building reported fraudulent activity with their phones services Monday morning, according to Redmond police reports.

Both companies, located in the 7100 block of 185th Avenue Northeast, use the same Internet phone service provider the system was hacked into and their phone numbers “were used for fraudulent calls,” according to police spokesman Jim Bove.

Several people received a call from the businesses’ phone numbers with an automated recording saying their Wells Fargo debit card had been deactivated and they needed to call this number back with their bank account number and pin, Bove said.

“One business received over 1,000 return calls,” he said.

In addition, the other business reported that there were several international calls on their account that they had not made, Bove said.

The investigation is ongoing.