NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Dr Eugene Juwah
The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has advised members of the public to ignore rumour that some people died while receiving calls from a particular phone number.
Some text messages were making the rounds Wednesday , with a claim that ten people have died in Wukari while receiving calls from a particular phone number… 09141, while another version claimed that 7 people have died for the same reason.
Some text messages were making the rounds Wednesday , with a claim that ten people have died in Wukari while receiving calls from a particular phone number… 09141, while another version claimed that 7 people have died for the same reason.
With development, the Commission in a statement Wednesday in Abuja, said that the claim was false and without any iota of truth, adding that nothing like that could happen to somebody responding to the phone no matter the number through which such calls are made.
Head, Media and Public Relations of the Commission, Mr. Reuben Muoka, said the rumour must be the handiwork of some unscrupulous persons to instill fear in the minds of the members of the public.
“Technically, it is not possible for such a thing to happen because even the voice that you receive at the other end of the phone undergoes many conversions. It is therefore unimaginable that somebody will die while receiving a call. It is only very gullible people that will believe such a rumour”, he said.
Muoka also explained that all calls to phone users pass through the switch the of network operators where it is processed and identified for billing purposes and that no operator has issued this particular number to any user.
“In so far as this number is not issued by an operator, there is no way such a phone number will be able to call anybody in any of the networks.
He said that that he has personally placed a call to this number and it showed it is not a valid number, and therefore, will not be able to make or receive calls.
Muoka said the need to nip this kind of rumour to the board, justifies the rationale for ongoing SIM Card registration exercise in the country which will ensure that all phone users will be identified with their fingerprints and digital photographs.
H urged subscribers to go about their normal businesses and ensure that they all register their SIM cards with either their service providers or NCC appointed agents before the end of the programme by month end.
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Yes, only the gullible will believe such a stupid rumor from fear merchants. However, your explanation of how the Service Providers process the information left me to wonder how miscreants write messages, in the name of the Networks,to defraud the unsuspecting public? I got a message on my MTN line from "MTN N" that I won One Million Naira for recharging my line for than 200 Naira. That I should call a certain number (which was an MTN number) for details of how to collect the amount.Does this means that some staff of these networks are involved in this evil?
ReplyDelete@ Abankajt, that is called spoofing and is rampant with sms, mobile phone companies allow you to send a message from a name instead of from a number. this allows miscreants to decieve people, the from name for instance can be anything. i can send a text to you and the from name will be "Obasanjo", try online sms portals for how.
ReplyDeletei believe telophone companies start these rumours because they are the ones who have most to gain from scares like this, think of the number of phone calls and sms people would have sent out