January 11, 2006
Miss Belgium election, an SMS fraud?
Flemish magazine Deng regards the election of Miss Belgium, Virginie Claes, as a fraud, reports Spanish Sie7Dias.
According to Deng, Virginie Claes parents paid 15'000 euros ($ 18'000) so that Telecom company Essec, the sponsor of their daughter, would send 28.000 sms from 4 computers to the number that collects the votes of the public.
The telecom company is said to have rented a mobile phone number for each of its clients registered in their database and via a special software sent messages to the number where people could elect the new miss belgium.
Tthe trick had a huge impact on the total vote. The young Flemish engineer was thus elected. She denies all the accusations. She also asked the private tv channel VTM (that broadcasted the election ceremony) to make public the number of votes and their origin. The young miss however admitted that she had given as a present 5 phone cards to her friends so that they could vote for her."
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