There is a message doing rounds on social media warning phone users against receiving calls from or about certain numbers blah blah....
I received an email from a former client and friend with this forwarded message;
Dear All,
If you receive a phone call on your mobile from any person, saying that, he or she is a company engineer, or telling that they're checking your mobile line, and you have to press # 90 or #09 or any other number. End this call immediately without pressing any numbers. There is a fraud company using a device that once you press #90 or #09 they can access your "SIM" card and make calls at your expense. Forward this message to as many friends as you can, to stop it.
All mobile users pay attention if you receive a phone call and your mobile phone displays (XALAN) on the screen don't answer the call, END THE CALL IMMEDIATELY, if you answer the call, your phone will be infected by a virus..
This virus will erase all IMEI and IMSI information from both your phone and your SIM card, which will make your phone unable to connect with the telephone network. You will have to buy a new phone. This information has been confirmed by both Motorola and Nokia.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS PIECE OF INFORMATION TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS HAVING A MOBILE.
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Now, is there any truth to this or is it just another email scam?
Detailed Analysis
This message, which has circulated, first via email,
and more lately via social media and text message,
since at least 2005, warns that fraudsters are
hijacking mobile phones by tricking users into
pressing a specific combination of digits. It further
warns of a supposed virus that can destroy your
mobile phone if you answer a call that displays
"XALAN" on your phone screen.
However, the message is a hoax. None of the
information provided in the email is in any way valid
for mobile phone users.
The first part of the hoax email claims that pressing
#90 or a similar combination of digits will give a
fraudster access to your sim card and allow him or
her to make calls at your expense. This is untrue
and has been denied by Australian telecommunications giant, Telstra , South African
communications company, MTN, and other service
providers around the world. This part of the hoax is derived from earlier, partially factual, warnings about scammers who try to use "90#" to hijack fixed line phones.
This scam does not affect residential or cell phone customers — it only applies to businesses, hospitals, government agencies, and other organizations that still use telephone private branch
exchanges (PBXs) rather than Centrex lines to handle their calls. On certain PBX systems (i.e. ones for which pressing '9' is the signal to obtain an outside line, and there are no restrictions placed on outgoing calls), a scammer could gain access to place expensive, long-distance phone calls by tricking an employee into initiating the #-9-0 sequence. Outside of a few other settings where one might have to press '9' to obtain an outside line (such as hotels), the likely result of pressing #-9-0 will simply be a fast busy signal.
Later versions of this warning evolved to include mention of the risk that terrorists utilizing the #90 sequence could "frame innocent people" (presumably by making terrorism-related calls linked to the phone numbers of those innocent
parties) and remotely access cell phone SIM cards:
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The second part of the hoax claims that a virus that displays the word "XALAN" can destroy your mobile phone. This information is totally untrue.
Although mobile phone viruses are possible, there is no virus like the one described in the email message. There are a number of alternative versions of the "warning" message, some of which list the word displayed as "UNAVAILABLE" or "ACE" rather than "XALAN". Again, Telstra , MTN, and other providers
have denied the existence of such viruses.
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