Is the virus threat to your cell real?

Throwing Indian cellular phone users into a tizzy is an unidentified SMS claiming that a cellphone virus — ACE — is riding the airwaves and threatening to reduce destroy both cell phones and SIM cards, reports The Times of India.

"Reportedly, dealers too have been receiving panic calls from harried customers".

"It is a hoax, as just like e-mails, a virus can only be transmitted when a software is being downloaded onto a computer or phone and not through SMSs or calls,” says Hutch (Gujarat) CEO Sanjoy Mukherji.

Nokia sources maintain that so far none of their handsets have been affected by any virus. “There is a lot of security on the air interface, making it difficult for anyone to hack or send a virus on air,” they said.

Seemingly a recent entrant to India, the ACE hoax is not new. Rearing its head in the late 1990s in the West, it traumatised cellphone users in the US, Europe, and the Middle-East".

emily | 8:30 AM | Spam, Viruses and Hoaxes |
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