Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Vietnamese Cell Network Chokes On SMS Hoax

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 03:36:12 -0500

Vietnamese Cell Network Chokes On SMS Hoax
Contributed by mmasnick on Mon, Oct 27 2003

Over at textually.org, they find it odd that a Vietnamese cellular network was
clogged by millions of unexpected SMS messages after someone created a hoax,
saying that if the message was forwarded on to nine people, they would receive
some money from Vodafone. I'm not sure what's so surprising about this. It's just
a simple update to the old chain letter emails that went around for years (and are
probably still going around) promising cash or prizes from any number of companies
such as Microsoft or Disney. It's no surprise that such messages would make their
way to mobile phone users as well.
Cellphone network chokes on SMS joke

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October 27, 2003

Hanoi – Vietnam’s largest cellphone operator has had its network clogged up for 10
hours.
This was all due to a hoax SMS, a company employee said yesterday.
Thousands of VinaFone’s 1,5-million subscribers received a message telling them it
was the nine-year anniversary of the company and if they forwarded it to nine
other subscribers, they would receive 90 Vietnamese dong (about R40).The network
became paralysed by the volume of messages being sent and received as subscribers
tried to cash in on the fake offer. The message was not authorised by VinaFone,
which is in fact only seven years old. On Vietnamese television on Saturday night,
it was forced to broadcast a plea not to forward the message. – Sapa-DPA

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=132&fArticleId=269905

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