He went by the name of Iulian. In two months, he called 112, Romania’s emergency number more than 1,500 times, and there was never an emergency.
Fake callers like “Iulian” dialled the emergency line more than 311,000 times in the first three months of 2020, authorities say in what is a growing problem.
Sometimes fake callers curse the operator or they make jokes.
An unidentified person from the county of Ilfov called a staggering 7,573 times, while an individual from the northeast county of Vaslui dialled 6,779 times.
Authorities managed to identify “Iulian” and fine him.
Romania’s Special Telecommunications Service said Friday there had been 4.8 million calls to 112 in the first six months of the year of which 311,000 or 6,47% were an abuse of the system.
Another person called from the southern county of Olt more than 9,500 times, while 44 people called at least 1,000 times.
Of all the calls, 2.2 million were not considered emergencies. But weren’t pranks.
”People called repeatedly without having a real emergency, they joked or were rude or they used the emergency line for events that didn’t require emergency intervention from the ambulance, police, firefighters, gendares or mountain rescue,” a statement said.
It said “Iulian” used a pre-pay card to make calls in the southern county of Giurgiu. He was eventually identified by local police and fined an unspecified amount.
There were others “Iulians,” with at least five making more than 5,500 calls.
Authorities urged people not to abuse the emergency services. People can be fined up to 2,000 lei and ordered to do 200 hours of community work.
Id authorities act on a prank call, the fine rises to 4,000 lei and 400 hours of community work.
