Phnom Penh - Cambodian officials have moved to quell growing
hysteria sparked by a rumour that a ghostly red number was appearing
on mobile phones and killing people, local media and police said
Saturday.
Officials have urged calm in the mobile-phone-crazy country, where
rumours spread nationally like wildfire thanks to cheap calls and
text messages, and have denied any red number exists.
Posts and Telecommunications Minister So Khun said the rumour was
probably due to growing tension prior to scheduled national elections
in July, the English-language Cambodia Daily reported.
'Anyone can make this up. In a moment we will hear that fish will
grow legs and run away,' the paper quoted the minister as saying.
Rumours such as this are not new to Cambodia, where people are
deeply superstitious and believe in sorcerers and spirits but have
nevertheless embraced texting technology as a national passion.
At the height of the SARS outbreak in 2003, a story circulated
that people who did not eat a sugar palm dessert before midnight
would die, sparking nationwide mass panic-buying of palm sugar that
resulted in several market stalls being damaged.
In January of the same year, a false rumour that a Thai soap
actress had claimed the national icon, Angkor Wat temple, was Thai
led to an angry mob torching the Thai embassy and businesses.
Police warned Saturday that if the culprit for this latest text-
message-fuelled scare was found they would be prosecuted, but
admitted Chinese whisper investigations of this nature were virtually
impossible to trace.
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