Prankster Infiltrates Spy Job Line

LONDON — Would-be James Bonds bidding to join Britain’s secret service got a shock when they phoned the job application line--Russia’s KGB said it had taken over.

More than 20,000 hopefuls inundated the recruitment firm hired by Britain’s MI5 Security Service after it placed its first undisguised advertisement for recruits in a national newspaper last week.

But they were greeted by a taped message saying, “Hello, my name is Col. Blotch.

“I am calling on behalf of the KGB. We have taken over MI5 because they are not secret anymore, and they are a very crap[py] organization.”

Interior Ministry officials said Saturday that they had begun an investigation into how a prankster apparently altered the message.

In the Guardian newspaper advertisement, MI5 sought applicants for what it called “a very special part of Her Majesty’s government--the Security Service.”