Article: NOKIA DEATH HOAX FURY; Customers told phones can kill.(News)
Byline: By DAVID TAYLOR
FURIOUS Nokia bosses have blasted sick hoaxers who claim some calls to mobiles could cause 'rapid death' from electric shocks.
Officiallooking letters claiming to be from the phone company are being emailed and posted to random customers across the UK.
They say: 'Many of you will be aware of the rumours circulating about our products. It is my sad duty to inform you that these rumours are true.'
Carrying the signature of Nokia Chief Executive Jorma Ollila, 55, the letter warns that when a mobile is dialled from certain numbers the phone sends out massive quantities of electromagnetic energy.
The hoaxers claim this results in 'both coronary heart failure and brain haemorraging, generally followed by severe external bleeding and rapid death.'
A spokesman for Nokia said: 'Like many other claims circulating on the internet, this is a hoax.
'The letter has absolutely nothing to do with Nokia. We regret any inconvenience caused to our customers by this work of fiction.'
The bogus letter also claims all other mobile phone manufacturers are affected by the same problem. It says it is an inherent fault in the system design and cannot be resolved.
Addressed To All Staff and stamped 'confidential', the letter has been made to look like it has been leaked from within the company - but the word haemorrhaging is spelt incorrectly.
The final paragraph warns staff if they speak to anyone about the letter they will be sacked.
A source at the 136-year-old Finland-based company said: 'In instances like this the culprit usually turns out to be a disgruntled member of staff or a rival firm.
'We don't want to start pointing the finger until we have evidence but we don't want the company to be damaged by malicious incidents like this
CAPTION(S):
Sick: Fake letter says phones are dangerous
Source:http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-133550932.html
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
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
source : http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/medical/a/death_calls.htm
