Status: Insane rumor
Panic has struck mobile phone users in India as word spreads of
"devil calls" that cause your phone to explode: "People started turning off their handsets after a rumour swept Orissa state of phones exploding like bombs killing their owners when they answered the calls. The random "devil calls" supposedly started Sunday from phones with 11 to 14 digit numbers instead of the regular 10, said an official from India's state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam phone company."
Obviously the rumor is completely bogus, but the theory of the general manager of the phone company in the area is interesting. He speculates that the 'devil call' rumor "could be the handiwork of vested interests to subsequently market anti-virus software for mobile phones." Sounds plausible. (I've never used anti-virus software because it seems to cause more computer problems than viruses themselves do... though I use a Mac, so viruses aren't a big issue.)
I also recall that almost the exact same rumor swept through Nigeria
back in July 2004. Somehow it travelled from Nigeria to India.
Comments
The hardcore use Linux 😛
File this one under Robot Zionist Penis-Melting Combs.
Holy crap I've got to go!
*runs to infiltrate Jamster
Israel's Mossad did exactly this a few years ago with an Hamas leader.
Hmm, and remember the spontaniously exploding Nokia's a few years ago? That was the battery exploding, spontaniously.
I dunno, technically perhaps you could transmit a signal through a phonecal at the resonance frequency of the cellphone's battery...kaboom!
But I agree with Alex that it is probably bogus.
I was a bit shocked by the way about your attitude to anti-virus software, Alex. True, on a Mac virusses are less a problem, but anyone on a PC without anti-virus software is simply an idiot who should not be allowed free on the internet.
Maybe not as important as AV software, but still....
Well, you see, Nigeria and India are both part of "abroad", which is all joined up, and we poor savages who live in it move around and speak to each other, though admittedly we have to rely on old tin cans joined with taut string if we want to talk over long distances. (I am writing this post on a hand-cranked adding machine.)
Mind you, Abroad is a dangerous place. For more information, have a look at http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1761082&page=1
In the north-eastern parts, where my parents reside, people are swearing that they know someone who has actually died due to one of these "explosions".
My dad calls me up this morning asking me if that's a possiblity. I don't exactly work on handheld devices, but as someone has already pointed it out, phones do not contain explosives, hence even if there were to be a miniscule explosion due to faulty circuitry, it could never be fatal.
But the power of rumours cannot be under-estimated, and hence dad tells me he's switching over to the trusty landline until it's proven that cell phones are "safe" for normal usage. Duh!!