Fact or Fiction????

The last post regarding things your cell phone can do leaves a lot to be desired. It's ok - I can say that because I'm the one that posted it. I neglected to verify the facts before I posted. I apologize to you all for my neglect.

Thankfully, Bob Meyers had my back... and, yours. Here are the FACTS:


The Emergency Number for Cell Phones Worldwide is 112-Fiction!
You Can Unlock Your Car Remotely Through a Cell Phone-Fiction!
There May be Hidden Battery Power in Your Cell Phone-Fiction!
Dial *#06# on Your Cell Phone to Get a Code That Will Disable Your Phone-Truth!

Summary of the eRumor: The eRumor is a collection of alleged little-known facts about cell phones (summarized above).

The Truth: Let's go through them one at a time.

The Emergency Number worldwide for **Mobile** is 112--FICTION! There is no single emergency number in use world wide. The number 112 is used in some countries but not all. Many countries also use 119, 999, and 911. Additionally, not all phones in all countries would be able to even try dialing a single emergency code.

You Can Unlock Your Car Remotely Through a Cell Phone-FICTION! This was an eRumor that previously circulated on its own. The claim is that if you lock yourself out of your car but have a extra remote switch at your home you can phone someone at home, have the person hold the switch up to the phone, then you hold your cell phone near your car door and when the button on the other remote is pressed—your car door will open. This one is also false. It assumes that car remotes use sound waves to open your door but most of them use radio signals, not sound. A radio signal will not travel over the audio of a cell phone.

There may be hidden battery power in your cell phone-FICTION! If there is a phone that offers this feature, we have not found it. The eRumor claims that if you punch in a certain code on your cell phone you will access reserve power. It mentions Nokia in particular but the folks at Nokia told TruthOrFiction.com that they do not have any phone with that capability.

How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone-TRUTH! The eRumor says that inputting "*#06# into your phone will reveal your serial number. It says that you should write that number down and if your cell phone is lost or stolen, giving the number to your cell provider will give them what they need to disable your phone. This doesn't work on every phone, but some phones do reveal what is called an International Mobile Equipment identity or "IEMI" number when punching in the code of "*#06#." This is especially true for GSM/DCS/PCS phones. If such a phone is stolen, it can be "greylisted" or "blacklisted." Greylisted means that the phone can still be used but can also be tracked. Blacklisting means that the phone cannot be used.

The moral of this story is YOU CANNOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ IN YOUR EMAILS EVEN WHEN THEY COME FROM FRIENDS OR RELATIVES. Always check the facts out for yourself.