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Employees at a National Weather Service office in Maryland were startled when a message suddenly blared over the intercom in Chinese

Lisa August 9, 2018


Adam Berry/Getty Images

  • Federal officials are trying to figure out how a random Chinese-language message suddenly blared over the intercom at a National Weather Service office in Maryland on Wednesday.
  • Minutes before the voice of a Chinese woman was broadcast, employees received a similar message on their phones at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) affiliate office in College Park, Maryland, The Washington Post reported.
  • An approximate English translation of the message said, “you have a package from Amazon at the Chinese Embassy. Press 1 for more details,” The Post said.
  • In an email to Business Insider Wednesday evening, an NOAA representative said the agency is still investigating the matter.

Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are trying to figure out how an unexpected Chinese-language message suddenly blared over the loudspeakers at a National Weather Service office in Maryland on Wednesday.

The intercom announcement caught employees off-guard because the office loudspeakers are not used often, The Washington Post reported .

Minutes before that message was broadcast on the intercom there, the voice of an unknown woman delivered the same message, in Chinese, to employee phones at the NOAA’s Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Maryland.

The announcement, loosely translated to English, said “you have a package from Amazon at the Chinese Embassy. Press 1 for details.” The agency’s technical staff said it was in contact with AT&T to determine what happened.

In an email to Business Insider on Wednesday evening, an NOAA representative said the agency was still investigating the matter.

In April, the Chinese Embassy in the US warned of an uptick in automated scam calls claiming to be from the embassy. The fraudulent calls urge people to pick up packages, or respond to criminal cases in which they are allegedly involved.

The NOAA on Wednesday sought to reassure employees, saying the phone system “is not tied to any Government-controlled IT systems in the building,” The Post reported, citing an email from the agency’s infrastructure chief Doug Fenderson.

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