The Ring
I got a missed call today. I didn't pick it up as I was riding. The number was strange but I quickly dismissed the call as a ricochet call from some foreign country.
*****
I got home to find out that my house got the same call from that same number. Nobody answered the call for safety sake. There was a report in Berita Harian of people dying in Indonesia after receiving a mysterious phone call or SMS. It was warning people not to answer calls that has strange prefixes. I have my suspicions to the credibility of the report but it's something I would not entirely dismiss either. Perhaps black magic decided to keep up with times and got an upgrade.
I needed to get the bottom of this and started to browse the web if any of these is true. Some indonesian sites has this to say:
Ketua Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) Sumut Prof DR H Abdullah Syah, MA mengimbau masyarakat tidak mempercayai rumor yang "berbau" syirik tersebut. Menurut dia, rumor tersebut sangat meresahkan dan tidak perlu dipercaya karena dapat merusak akidah (keyakinan) beragama. "Hidup dan mati manusia telah ditentukan Tuhan dan bukan disebabkan karena menerima telepon atau SMS," katanya.
I conclude that the Berita Harian report is very likely a rumour gone wild. If you think about it, it's from a plot of the movies.
Then I decided to google the number : 000190853203. It seems that people have been getting these calls for some time. You can check out the link but in short, its a scam.
I needed to get the bottom of this and started to browse the web if any of these is true. Some indonesian sites has this to say:
Ketua Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) Sumut Prof DR H Abdullah Syah, MA mengimbau masyarakat tidak mempercayai rumor yang "berbau" syirik tersebut. Menurut dia, rumor tersebut sangat meresahkan dan tidak perlu dipercaya karena dapat merusak akidah (keyakinan) beragama. "Hidup dan mati manusia telah ditentukan Tuhan dan bukan disebabkan karena menerima telepon atau SMS," katanya.
I conclude that the Berita Harian report is very likely a rumour gone wild. If you think about it, it's from a plot of the movies.
Then I decided to google the number : 000190853203. It seems that people have been getting these calls for some time. You can check out the link but in short, its a scam.
The Ring 2
Another incident with phones happened about 2 months back. I was calling a friend over my phone. Out of nowhere, I heard a lady's voice. My friend was no longer on the other side. The lady was saying, "Ouh... sorry". Then she hung up.
I called my friend again. He told me that he got cut off as well and found himself talking to some guy. The incident got me thinking,
"was it just an honest mistake of an operator?"
"do we even need operators for our local calls?"
"who was really on the other side, who seemed to realise she made a mistake?"
"are my calls being tracked?"
Technology made life easy for man. But it also empowers the people who has control of that technology.... and what if that technology falls into the wrong hands and we get exploited.
Am I just being paranoid or is there a genuine need to ensure that technology doesn't fall in the wrong hands. I shall elaborate in later posts.
I called my friend again. He told me that he got cut off as well and found himself talking to some guy. The incident got me thinking,
"was it just an honest mistake of an operator?"
"do we even need operators for our local calls?"
"who was really on the other side, who seemed to realise she made a mistake?"
"are my calls being tracked?"
Technology made life easy for man. But it also empowers the people who has control of that technology.... and what if that technology falls into the wrong hands and we get exploited.
Am I just being paranoid or is there a genuine need to ensure that technology doesn't fall in the wrong hands. I shall elaborate in later posts.
Posted by
Firdaus
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random musings
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