Farming charity the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (R.A.B.I.) is warning people to be on their guard after fraudsters hacked into its telephone system, costing it thousands of pounds.

Telephones at R.A.B.I.’s head office in Oxford were targeted at the weekend when hackers accessed voice mail codes and then spent hours dialling a premium rate number, thought to be based in Russia and set up to carry out this kind of fraud.

The fraud was stopped after five hours late on Friday evening when telephone provider du Pré noticed the unusual activity and blocked calls to and from the charity. However, in just a few hours they had already cost R.A.B.I. around £2,000.

The charity’s phones, including its confidential helpline for farming families in need, have also been down since the attack, preventing people who may be in urgent need from seeking help.

Chief executive Paul Burrows said: “We hope to get the lines up and running again soon, but for the moment we’re asking anyone in need to email us at grants@rabi. org.uk and for people with general enquiries to email us at info@rabi.org.uk.

“We help farming families in financial need, often in extreme circumstances. It’s hard to believe someone would sink so low – especially at this time of year – and not only prevent people from getting the help they need, but effectively steal money which we and the people who support us work hard to raise.

“£2,000 could, for example, have bought food vouchers for 10 families at Christmas, paid for a relief worker to help a farmer who has suffered a tragic accident, or paid for ten lifeline alarms to keep elderly people safe in their own homes.

“As an organisation we take security very seriously but it seems that all it took was for someone to guess a voice mail code at random.

“We now understand this kind of fraud costs UK businesses at least £16 million a year. I should like to warn other organisations and especially other charities to be on their guard in case it happens to them too. We were fortunate that our service provider noticed the unusual telephone activity and barred calls before we lost even more money. Other people might not be so lucky. It’s clear we all need to remain vigilant and increase the security in our phone systems.”