A PHONE operator was last night still hunting the prankster who hacked into its system to greet callers to a complaints line with a string of expletives.

NTL, which was this month named among the UK's worst firms for customer service, said a recorded message was changed on Sunday morning to include a torrent of abuse.

Shocked callers to a faults line were told to "**** off" by a man with a strong Geordie accent.

A spokesman for the phone operator said it was not known if the message was changed by a disgruntled worker or a malicious hacker.

The message, which was added to interactive voice recordings, said: "Hello, you are through to NTL customer services. We don't give a **** about you. We are never here.

"We will **** you about , basically, and we are not going to handle any of your complaints. Just **** off and leave us alone. Get a life."

The message stayed active for an hour until staff were alerted by callers.

One shocked customer said: "I can laugh about it, but it wouldn't have been so funny if a kid had got through."

NTL confirmed that an investigation was being carried out. She said: "We removed the offending message as quickly as was humanly possible and our priority now is to conduct a full and thorough investigation.

"Obviously we would like to apologise to those customers who heard the rant."