Here's what I received via email this morning: 'This virus will erase all IMIE and IMSI information from both your phone and SIM card which will disable your phone's ability to connect to the network. You will have to buy a new phone".
The message had been forwarded to me and a couple of hundred others, and encouraged us all to send it to still more friends and neighbours.
It went on to say that the information had been confirmed by Motorola and Nokia and that over three million cellular phone users were already affected in the US. It also said that the news had been posted at CNN.
So, like any other concerned cellular phone user, I panicked. Unlike most other users though, I also checked the Internet for more information.
According to Symantec's anti-virus page that posted this report on May 18, 1999, the message I received was an old one. The hoax had resurfaced over two years later, creating doubts among users around the world.
It seems to have originated after the appearance of the Timofonica worm that, apparently, caused infected PCs to send text messages to random cell phones. For those who have received the email recently and are worried about their phones being disconnected, the same report quotes Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus, saying that mobile phones are not powerful enough to be infected by a virus just yet.
The hoax supposedly takes advantage of the general lack of awareness about how modern technology works.
This posting explains why mobile phones cannot be infected in such a manner. Firstly, cell phones aren't computers. Secondly, they don't have executable file storage. The purpose of virus hoaxes is, basically, to spread misinformation in the shortest possible time, taking advantage of email's snowballing effect.
Visiting sites like Hoaxbusters, F-Secure, McAfee's Virus Library and Urban Legends can usually help separate the true from the false.
F-Secure encourages worried visitors: "There's no virus capable of infecting cell phones and erasing SIM cards. Please ignore this warning and don't pass it on."
That's it, then. Now you know. Don't hit that forward button just yet.
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