'Death Calls' / 'Killer Phone Number' Warnings
By David Emery, About.com Guide
Forwarded emails warn mobile phone users not to accept calls from certain numbers which allegedly transmit high-frequency signals causing brain hemorrhage and death.
Description: Email rumor / Hoax
Circulating since: April 2007
Status: False
Email example contributed by Youssef B., May 2, 2007:
Hi All,
Its very important news for all of you. Do not pick up calls Under given numbers.
, 9888308001
, 9316048121 91+
, 9876266211
, 9888854137
, 9876715587
These 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
Analysis: Don't panic, it's a hoax. Variants of the so-called "death call" warning 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.
2004 variant in Nigeria
In July 2004 a simpler version of this rumor caused a minor outbreak of panic in Nigeria. An example of the forwarded text message published on South Africa's Independent Online news website read as follows:
Beware! You'll die if you take a call from any of these phone numbers: 0802Â 311Â 1999 or 0802Â 222Â 5999.
"This is an absolute hoax and should be treated as such," said a representative of Nigeria's largest cellular provider at the time, VMobile, in a statement to the press.
Nokia hoax
Apparently inspired by the Nigerian rumor, a bogus "confidential letter" began circulating around the same time which purported to have been written by a Nokia executive who confirmed that "use of our mobile phones can cause spontaneous death to the user in certain circumstances."
"The problem manifests itself when the phone is dialled from certain numbers," the letter continued. "The mobile base sends out massive quantities of electromagnetic energy, whic resonates from the mobile phone's antenna. As the user answers his phone, the energy surges into his body, resulting in both coronary heart failure and brain haemorraging, generally followed by severe external bleeding and rapid death."
Nokia quickly disavowed the letter, dismissing it as a "work of fiction."
See also: The Phone Call of Death - 999-999-9999
See also: Rumor - Text Messages Can Kill
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Sources and further reading:
Ring of Death a Hoax
Kuwait Times, 27 April 2007
Mobile 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 2007
Panic Spreads Over 'Killer' Cell Phone Numbers
Independent Online, 22 July 2004
Nigerian Rumor 'Killer Phone' Numbers Kill
UPI, 19 July 2004
Last updated: 05/04/10
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