Xtra News Community 2
March 30, 2024, 02:05:03 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Welcome to Xtra News Community 2 — please also join our XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP.
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links BITEBACK! XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP Staff List Login Register  

Text prank results in helpline closure

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Text prank results in helpline closure  (Read 70 times)
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Newtown-Fella
Guest
« on: May 26, 2009, 09:51:06 am »

reminds me of the days when we used to leave messages on peoples desks in the office to call " dial a prayer " ...

 
A viral text message prank has forced a sexual health support service to cancel its freephone number after calls to the helpline swelled to more than 72,000 in five days.

The New Zealand Herpes Foundation became the target of a hoax after a text message, believed to have originated in Christchurch, was circulated nationally by phone users.

It told the receiver to call the 0508 freephone number urgently because their phone battery was dying. When the recipient did so, they reached a recorded message: "Welcome to the herpes hotline."

Foundation manager Claire Hurst said she would normally receive between 200 and 250 helpline calls a year, but from Saturday afternoon on May 16 till last Wednesday, there was a "rash of calls" to the line more than 72,000.

"In the 20 minutes it took to speak to the manager [at TelstraClear], 400 more people had called that line," she said.

Ms Hurst said it was disappointing that the unprecedented prank had come just two weeks into a planned two-month campaign aimed at destigmatising the virus.

"Since the foundation started in 1994, it was the first time that such a phenomenon has happened. It got so out of control, so quickly," she said.

"What I can't get my head around is how many people got the message, made the call, realised it was a prank and still sent it on."

In the 24 hours since the 0508 number was cancelled last Wednesday, a further 10,000 had attempted to call the number.

Ms Hurst said the cost of receiving all the calls was "many, many thousands" of dollars however TelstraClear have wiped all charges.

"We couldn't have paid it, it would have bankrupted us," she said.

"We're not-for-profit, we have a finite budget from the Ministry of Health to deliver a service. We didn't know what to do, cancelling the helpline means you are then penalising the people who are using the service."

People who want to contact the foundation can visit its website, which has an alternative phone number.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/2441651/Text-prank-results-in-helpline-closure
Report Spam   Logged

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter


Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Open XNC2 Smileys
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum


Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy
Page created in 0.034 seconds with 13 queries.