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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 would in all countries to 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.

Updated 12/06/06
A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOUR CELLPHONE COULD DO...

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies.

Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for
survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

*I*

* The Emergency Number worldwide for **Mobile** is 112.* If you find
yourself out of coverage area of your mobile network and there is an
emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to
establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112
can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. **Try it out.**

*II*

* Subject: Have you locked your keys in the car? Does your car have remote
keys?*

This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone:

If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call
someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone.

Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person
at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on
their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your
keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away,
and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you
can unlock the doors (or the trunk).

Editor's Note: *It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car
over a cell phone!"*

*III*

Subject: Hidden Battery power

Imagine your cell battery is very low , you are expecting an important
call
and you don't have a charger. Nokia instrument comes with a reserve
battery. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your cell will restart with
this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This
reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time.

AND

*IV*

How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on
your phone:

* # 0 6 #

A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your
handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. when your phone get
stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They
will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the
SIM card, your phone will be totally useless.

You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever
stole it can't use/sell it either.

If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile
phones.

Please spread this useful information around

Have a great night, Mark