Dominic Von Stoesser
29 April 2008
Windhoek — Telecom Namibia has distanced itself from the latest cellphone hoax.
The hoax, which had been circulating by e-mail under a Telecom Namibia logo, purported to warn readers of a new scam targeting cellphone users' Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards for malicious intent.
"This is in fact a variation of hoaxes that circle the Internet time and time again," said the Telecom statement. Telecom pointed out that its mobile network did not use SIM cards, but Re-Usable Identification Module (RUIM) cards.
Hoaxes of this kind - commonly known as urban legends - have been around for longer than the Internet, and rely on the credulity of the reader to propagate, although they may have some tenuous basis in fact. They also change over time: the hoax to which Telecom refers is cited by the website www.snopes.com, which tracks urban legends and their propagation.
It is stated as being 'partly true', in that the technique described may once have worked under certain configurations of PBX switchboard systems. The hoax was in the top 15 hoaxes at time of writing. "The moral of the story," says Snopes.com, "is 'trust no one, not even yourself'. If a caller is unknown to you and his story sounds fishy, hang up."
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