Around 200 homes in the southeast of the country were repeatedly targeted by nuisance phone calls over a number of hours today.
The calls all originated from a phone number in Britain, and encouraged the householders to ring a premium rate phone line to claim prizes they had won.
The calls were all in the form of a pre-recorded message telling the householder they had won a mystery prize, ranging from a plasma TV to a brand new top of the range car.
One woman told RTÉ News she had received more than 30 such calls from the same number by early afternoon.
A spokesman for Eircom said that they had traced the calls to a UK number, and had immediately liaised with their counterparts in Britain to block the number from targeting any more Irish homes.
It is thought that the 200 Irish homes were dialled at random.
Anyone who did decide to dial the premium rate number to claim a prize was told the call cost €2.40 per minute.
