Nigeria government dismisses 'killer' phone number

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Gaborn

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LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's government is assuring people in Africa's most populous nation: a phone call can't kill you.

A text message has spread across the oil-rich country in recent days, warning that people will die if they answer mobile phone calls from 09141. The widespread fear forced the Nigerian Communications Commission to issue a statement Wednesday saying it is "unimaginable that somebody will die while receiving a call."

Commission spokesman Reuben Muoka says: "It is only very gullible people that will believe such a rumor."

Text message panics in Nigeria have included rumors of bombings and rumors that acid rain from seasonal dust storms can burn people alive. The campaigns are aided by poor education and lack of faith in the government.

A call to the number Thursday resulted in no fatalities.
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Story Here
 
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Too many people watching this me thinks
 
HeadlessRoland said:
Hahaha what a wonderful contrast. On one hand they have cell phones, on the other hand they believe in witchcraft and curses.
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And on the other other hand 71% of the coutry lives under the poverty line. Makes me wonder how they afford cellphones.
 
confused said:
And on the other other hand 71% of the coutry lives under the poverty line. Makes me wonder how they afford cellphones.
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According to Wikipedia it's 45%, but it's still sad a country so rich in oil has a population this poor.
 
confused said:
And on the other other hand 71% of the coutry lives under the poverty line. Makes me wonder how they afford cellphones.
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You've never seen a poor person with a cell phone? They also have refrigerators and televisions too. The mental image of poverty has to change I guess.

Smiles and Cries said:
Oil rich nation my arse
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Oil rich nations run by corrupt dictators usually don't do much for the people. But Dutch Shell and British Petroleum love this new Nigerian economic renaissance.

Hell, they had the United Nations help block news about the environmental genocide happening off the African coast. That place won't be right for 50+ years and 90% of the world doesn't even know what took place there. But the entire world saw the Gulf Coast crisis.
 
NekoFever said:
I love how that thread has a handful of sane people who are clearly incredibly embarrassed by the whole thing and getting increasingly exasperated in trying to explain why it's such a stupid rumour.
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Poor bastards, set adrift in a sea of gullibility and unreason.
 
Haha, Naija never change. There were all sorts of crazy stories circulating when I was growing up there.

One was if some people touched you, your dick and balls would disappear. That I am sure lead to one or two necklacings. This killer phone number shit was doing the rounds when I was back there 2 years ago too. People just make shit up and others believe it, so many people believe in witchcraft it aint funny, on the other hand it is partly fuelled by the ritual killings which take place. The pictures which came out of the police finding one were pretty telling with the skulls and bodies scattered around, if people believe in witchcraft to the point where they can kill another person in order to get rich this is not that much of a stretch.

Having said all these negative things about my beloved country, I can't wait to go back permanently love the place.
 
I found this on the sixth page of that thread someone linked in here.

The issue of killing number my be true/false i don't know, but my kind advice to people who said that (it's not possible for some one to answer a call nd die) it's 100% possible.

There is movie call HERO by jetli. This movie explains that, they is a Kingdom called Qin and this kingdom has never been defeated in a war simply because they never UNDERESTIMATE their enemies. Nomather how small the enemies kingdom is they will go with their whole army to defeat the ememies kingdom nd that is why the Kingdom of Qin continue to defeat all their enemies.

So bro/sis for you to conquer your chalanges in life Never UNDERESTIMATE any thing.

I have seen powers nd what it does nd i can never UNDERESTIMATE power.

Power can take any form/shape power can do/undo.ERESTIMATE any thing.

I have seen powers nd what it does nd i can never UNDERESTIMATE power.

Power can take any form/shape power can do/undo.

Don't Underestimate power.
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Someone is using the movie "Hero" to justify the existence of a killer phone call... :lol
 
scientist are researching, trying to invent the best in technology,

from ordinary video to HD Video, HD TV

Computer from pentium 2/3 to intel core i7

From Windows xp to Windows 8

Camera from black & white color to millions of colors, from 0.1 mega pixel to 15 mega pixel lens ...

Ok if all this things can upgrade to high versions then what happens to POWER
 
Yaceka said:
I found this on the sixth page of that thread someone linked in here.


Someone is using the movie "Hero" to justify the existence of a killer phone call... :lol
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Yes, that is the best post in the thread. Though I also found the one claiming that the rumour was meant to destabilize Nigeria and plunge it into civil war rather amazing.
 
This is so Viral Marketings by Atlus for Persona 2: Innocent Sin's release.

Yes, I know the Joker doesn't kill people. Work with me here.
 
One of my friend is from Nigeria and he told me about those stories and how its incredibly popular with older people. He remembered stories from his youth about if you stole some fruits from a cetain farmer's tree, your testicules would dry up like raisins and fall out one morning, and how everyone knew someone who suffered this terrible fate!

He said it was an oldschool cultural thing.
 
My mum told me that my dad called to tell me about not picking up calls with this number. My dad is a qualified accountant and i just shook my head. The level of superstition in Nigeria is beyond fucking belief at times.
 
confused said:
And on the other other hand 71% of the coutry lives under the poverty line. Makes me wonder how they afford cellphones.
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And on the other other other hand, people with three hands probably are pretty different from us in other ways, too.
 
Vagabundo said:
Has anyone on GAF tried calling the number?
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That's not how it works, and frankly I'm ashamed to post on the board as someone who is so clearly ignorant when it comes to the Ways of Science. In layman's terms, what has most likely occurred is that the owner of that number contracted a virus which mutated in such a way that it was able to spread across the cellular network. Therefore, he was the first victim and cannot answer the phone. A pity since phoning in a cure to ground zero would be the most efficient way to stop the spread of this virus. Hopefully people will be wise enough to cover their phones with condoms until a more permanent solution is found.
 
A call to the number Thursday resulted in no fatalities.
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Well of course there were no fatalities. You don't die when you call the number, you die when the number calls you.

This sort of irresponsible reporting is going to get people killed.
 
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