Australian boy given same mobile number as Melbourne brothel

A woman in Australia has been on the receiving end of a number of unwanted phone calls. She claims her grandson was given the same mobile phone number as a brothel in Melbourne. The woman said she was “livid” and “couldn’t understand” what was going on.

The woman, who gave her name as Margaret, phoned the Western Australian radio station 6PR on Wednesday to vent her fury at the mistake. "All these men kept calling and ...I tell you what, I was livid," she said, after her nine-year-old grandson was issued with the same number as the Melbourne brothel.

"It was such a shock because he couldn't understand it and I couldn't understand it," the woman added, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Margaret came forward with her story after hearing a similar revelation from a local sports star, Australian Rules footballer Nic Naitanui, who was also given a duplicate mobile phone number.

Australian technology expert Trevor Long said that he had not previously encounter the “mobile number sharing” phenomenon, but after making inquiries, he found it was plausible, even if it was a long shot, Fairfax Media reported.

"For this to happen, it would almost certainly mean one or more of the checks and balances within the provisioning system of the telco must have failed. If it did happen, it wouldn't last long. The security teams at the networks would flag it almost immediately," Long said.