Netlore Archive: Forwarded emails warn mobile phone users not to accept calls from certain numbers which supposedly transmit high-frequency signals causing brain hemorrhage and death
Description: Email hoax
Circulating since: April 2007
Status: False
Analysis: See below
Email example contributed by Youssef B., 2 May 2007:
Hi All,Its very important news for all of you. Do not pick up calls Under given numbers.
, 9888308001
, 9316048121 91+
, 9876266211
, 9888854137
, 9876715587These numbers will come in red color, if the calls comes up from these numbers. Its with very high wave length, and frequency. If a call is received on mobile from these numbers, it creates a very high frequency and it causes brain ham range. It's not a joke rather, its TRUE. 27 persons died just on receiving calls from these numbers. Watch Aaj Tak (NEWS), DD News and IBN 7.
Forward this message to all u'r friends and colleagues, and relatives
Comments: Don't panic, it's a hoax. Variants of the so-called "death call" alert first appeared on April 13, 2007 --
Friday the 13th -- in Pakistan, where they caused widespread panic and inspired a slew of ancillary rumors, such as the claim that
the phone calls, if listened to, could also cause impotence in men and pregnancy in women. Pakistanis were heard trading secondhand
stories of actual deaths that had occurred, some claiming they were the handiwork of ancestral spirits enraged by the construction
of a cell phone tower over a graveyard.
Government officials and mobile phone providers issued statements challenging the truth of the rumors in an effort to quell the panic, but, just as they began to subside in Pakistan, similar emails began to spread throughout India, the Middle East, and Africa. MTN Areeba, the largest cellular network in Ghana, released a statement echoing the assurances made by other providers: "A full scale national and international priority investigation has been conducted in the last 48 hours," a spokesperson said. "The investigation has confirmed that these rumours are completely unsubstantiated and have no technological evidence to support them."
According to engineers, cell phones are incapable of emitting sound frequencies that can cause immediate physical injury or death.
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Sources and further reading:
Phone Scare: Areeba Says It's a Hoax
Joy Online, 30 April 2007Ring of Death a Hoax
Kuwait Times, 27 April 2007Rumors of Cell Phone Deaths Greatly Exaggerated
Chicago Tribune, 26 April 2007Urban Myth Spreads Panic
Middle East Times, 20 April 2007Mobile Phone Virus Scare Jumps from Pakistan to Afghanistan
Cellular-News, 16 April 2007'Death Call from the Dark Side' Spooks Karachi
Daily Times (Pakistan), 14 April 2007The Call of Death Rings on Friday the 13th
The International News (Pakistan), 13 April 2007
Last updated: 05/15/07
