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An unexpected message – in Chinese – has been transmitted over a public address system in a US National Weather Service’s office in Maryland.

He was also received in the individual desk phones.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that it was a scam automated call, known as a robocall.

Reports of similar messages, in the form of audio recordings, have been made before.

“Our team in the building worked with the phone provider immediately to avoid all of the telephone numbers of access to the building’s public address system, to prevent this from happening again.”, said a spokesman for the US National Weather Service.

“At no point in NOAA for operations, data or systems compromised by this robocall.”

In April, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC, in English) warned the public about phone calls from scammers purporting to be from the Chinese consulate.

The recipient can be informed that you have a package to pick up at the consulate, for example – this was the case with the message received in the climate of the office.Chinese whispers

“If you receive a call or message like this, hang up or delete, and then tell the FTC,” the commission recommended.

A Time of Service of the employees, speaking anonymously to the Washington Post, said that the message in the phone arrived in first place, with the intercom broadcast message about 15 minutes later.

“We are aware that the Chinese message that is propagated through the telephone system and the [issuance] through the construction [system],” said an email from an IT manager in the service, that was passed to the newspaper.

“The telephone [system] is not linked to any of the governments, the systems of control in the building. Please do not be alarmed.”