By Sally Watson, 18 December 1998 14:52
NEWS A chain email that claims fraudsters posing as technicians are hacking into mobile phones and making international calls, has been exposed as a hoax by BT. The email scare story claims to have been confirmed by the UK telco but a BT spokeswoman said: "It's absolute rubbish." The email warns mobile owners to beware of technicians who claim to be performing a test and ask the user to press nine, zero and hash. According to the email, this enables the fraudster to make a long distance call which is then charged to the user's mobile phone bill. "It's just junk mail," the spokeswoman said. When told the email claims to have been approved by BT she added: "I imagine our legal and intellectual property people are looking into that." The spokeswoman said certain types of company switchboards in the US could allow a technician to enable a second dial tone - opening them up to the possibility of fraud - but this could not happen on any sort of BT phone.
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