http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2007-04-16T140304Z_01_ISL225840_RTRUKOC_0_US-OOD-AFGHAN-PHONES.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

example: suicide bombing gives you a deadly virus that only let's you get 27 virgins

Quote :

"KABUL (Reuters) - rumors swept through Afghanistan on Monday that a deadly virus was being spread by mobile telephone calls, and government officials scrambled to reassure the public the talk was rubbish. Many worried Afghan mobile phone users called family and friends, warning them not to answer calls from strange numbers. Some people said they had heard that several people had been killed by the mystery virus in Kabul at the weekend. "Don't answer any strange number because it contains a virus that will kill you," said Ahmad Fawad, a shop owner in Kabul. The rumors appear to have spread from neighboring Pakistan where last week a similar scare frightened countless mobile phone users. Reuters Pictures Photo Editors Choice: Best pictures from the last 24 hours. View Slideshow Officials from the Afghan interior, communications and health ministries appeared on television and said the talk was baseless."

4/16/2007 10:55:23 PM

Theres a video tape, if you see it you will die within seven days

4/16/2007 10:57:08 PM

people are just gulible. I could see the same thing happening here in America

4/16/2007 11:03:45 PM

it pretty much does.

i used to get all sorts of warning emails from folks.

4/17/2007 2:36:18 AM

Rule #1 in life is that most people are stupid. Remember that War of the Worlds broadcast that made people think that aliens were invading?

4/17/2007 8:38:15 AM

Quote :

"Theres a video tape, if you see it you will die within seven days"

damnit, that was exactly what I was thinking

4/17/2007 8:49:06 AM

this is funny.

but, everybody is an expert of his own surroundings. eskimoes have 22 different names for snow/ice, depending upon texture, compactness, etc.

these people are illiterate, uneducated, and come from one of the least developed countries in the world. so while they might not know that human viruses can't be spread by phones, but i bet if you told them that spaghetti grew on plants/trees, they would laugh at you.

Quote :

"Panorama's 'Spaghetti Harvest' 1/4/1957 The most elaborate and successful hoax in broadcasting since Orson Welles' War of the Worlds scare takes place on April Fool's Day. BBC viewers are conned by a famously fake Panorama report on a bumper 'spaghetti harvest' in southern Switzerland."

THEY EVEN SHOWED A FOOTAGE OF SPAGHETTI GROWING ON PLANTS!!!

here is the video:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6500000/newsid_6509700/6509711.stm?bw=nb&mp=wm

4/17/2007 8:50:44 AM

^apples and oranges there

The Brits would be technologically/scientifically savy enough to know that you can't get viruses from cellphones but are removed from the agricultural process enough (through modernization) to be gullible on the issue....

while Afghanis would know more about agriculture/natural things but less about technological things, making them prone to be fooled by the cellphone virus hoax.

4/17/2007 3:02:12 PM

I heard about this scare happening in Pakistan too.

Obviously its spreading fast.

4/17/2007 3:03:17 PM

^^ and did i say anything different?

but, everybody is an expert of his own surroundings.

4/17/2007 5:14:41 PM

your post was promising until:

Quote :

"these people are illiterate, uneducated, and come from one of the least developed countries in the world. so while they might not know that human viruses can't be spread by phones, but i bet if you told them that spaghetti grew on plants/trees, they would laugh at you. "

Your little subtle jab at The West was pretty lame. I'm just asking that you be more creative next time

You can't just admit that some population, somewhere fell for something like this without bringing up yet another remark about a western nation/populace.

[Edited on April 17, 2007 at 5:34 PM. Reason : .]

4/17/2007 5:32:47 PM

why isn't this locked?

4/17/2007 5:37:08 PM

no you moron, that was an elucidation with an example of what i meant by

but, everybody is an expert of his own surroundings.

and obviously to give a good example, i had to look at an "opposite" civilization/country in terms of technlogical development, etc. and that meant, looking at the West.

so, it was not a jab, as you call it.

you are just [extremely] paranoid and have the wrong idea about me.

4/17/2007 5:37:53 PM

I heard that this thread gives people AIDS.

4/17/2007 5:38:08 PM

Quote :

"no you moron, that was an elucidation with an example of what i meant by but, everybody is an expert of his own surroundings. and obviously to give a good example, i had to look at an "opposite" civilization/country in terms of technlogical development, etc. and that meant, looking at the West. so, it was not a jab, as you call it. you are just [extremely] paranoid and have the wrong idea about me. i admit though, i hada good laugh at that before it was removed. "

no, i'm pretty sure I know where you stand after "praying" that I would be beheaded in a previous thread.

[Edited on April 17, 2007 at 5:41 PM. Reason : .]

4/17/2007 5:40:37 PM

^ exactly.

so i wished that you were killed in some thread.

but this example i quoted about BBC's joke wasn't about you, was it?

it was about the british people.

hence, the paranoia.

4/17/2007 5:42:03 PM

no, it was about your obvious hatred for anything Western, as underlined in your threads and your profile.

4/17/2007 5:43:01 PM

i give up.

obviously, you know more about the intention of my post than i do.

gg.

4/17/2007 5:44:13 PM

that fast?

4/17/2007 5:45:02 PM

This might explain why a Jewish guy at work got two hang-up phone calls from a number out of Kuwait... damn Arabs always trying new ways take out the Jews!

4/18/2007 2:04:31 AM