White House phone number shows up as ‘Epstein Island’ on some devices after Google Maps edit

Journalists from The Washington Post who rang the White House last week over US First Lady Melania Trump’s summit to promote AI use in education were momentarily stunned when they found themselves dialling “Epstein Island” instead, the newspaper reported on March 27.

The Post’s Style section had wanted to find out which designer’s threads the First Lady donned during the Fostering the Future Together summit on March 25. But when they called the White House switchboard using Google’s Pixel phones, the name attached to the number read “Epstein Island” on their screens.

In response to the Post’s queries, Google spokesman Matthew Flegal said the company identified a “fake edit” in Google Maps that was “briefly” picked up in the call identification feature of some Android phones.

This is not the first incident of incorrect, scam or prank edits linked to Google Maps’ open-editing system.

In 2024, pranksters took advantage of the editing feature, which allows users to suggest edits to public listings of business profiles on Google, relabelling some schools in Hong Kong with incorrect names, such as “Fukien Crazy Secondary School”, the International Business Times reported.

The edit to the White House’s call screen name, which Mr Flegal said violated the company’s policies, has been reversed, and the user behind the alteration has been blocked from making further edits.

A later call on March 27 by the Post, again using a Pixel phone, showed no name attached to the White House’s number.

A White House official who spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity on the same day said that the call screen name was external and unrelated to the White House systems.

It is unclear how long the “Epstein Island” name was attached to the White House’s number or how many callers may have seen it.

Little St James, infamously nicknamed Epstein Island, is a private Caribbean island that was owned by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who allegedly used it as a site for sexual abuse and trafficking of underage girls.

In 2019, Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was found dead in his prison cell in August that year before he could stand trial.

Millions of documents released by the US Justice Department from its investigation into the disgraced financier have revealed his ties to some of the world’s most powerful and rich figures, including US President Donald Trump and Britain’s former prince Andrew.

Mr Trump has acknowledged that he knew Epstein socially but denied having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.