the killer numbers

[George Brummer]

PANIC AT NIGERIAN 'KILLER CALLS'
 A rumour has spread rapidly in the commercial capital, Lagos, that if one answers calls from certain "killer numbers" then one will die immediately.
 A BBC reporter says experts and mobile phone operators have been reassuring the public via the media that death cannot result from receiving a call. He says that in such a superstitious country unfounded rumours are common.
 A list of alleged killer numbers has been circulated but no-one is reported to have died from answering the phone. The BBC's reporter in Lagos, Sola Odunfa, says that the current scare story is reminiscent of a rumour that spread a few years ago that a handshake could cause sexual organs to disappear. That rumour turned to tragedy as mobs rounded on people accused of making organs disappear.
 Despite the massive public interest, no-one was found to have lost their organs.