Unmarked Police Car Warning

This hoax is actually pretty harmless but like most email hoaxes it is a time waster and a big fat fib. The Unmarked Police Car Warning first originated in the US where it was the #77 you had to dial. The Australian version of the hoax talks about dialling 112.

The hoax claims that "This actually happened to someone's daughter. Lauren was 19 years old.." . The truth is that this never happened. It claims that an unmarked police car came up behind Lauren's car with it's light flashing. Apparently Lauren's fictional parents had told her never to to pull over on the side of the road and always wait until she got to a petrol station. What?! Too bad if she was driving across the Nullabor :-) The fairytale goes on to say that Lauren dialed the magic number 112 and called the police they told her they did not have a car in that area and they were sending back up. The happy ending was that the driver was caught and he turned out to be a convicted rapist. Absolute fantasy.

The only part of the email that is true is that 112 is the universal emergency number on the GSM phone system. Basically all countries that support GSM have the number 112 automatically diverted to the local emergency number. In Australia if you dial 112  from a GSM phone you will automatically be diverted to 000. The reason this exists is that emergency numbers are different all over the world, so if you travel with your GSM phone you can dial 112 and automatically get emergency services.

The hoax finally whines about the mobile companies don't tell you about 112, which is also nonsense because it is clearly outlined in every GSM phone manual.  Some people have even pointed to the Australian Communication Authority's website pointing out 112 exists which automatically legitimises the claims.

All the ACA site does is confirm that 112 is a standard emergency number on all GSM phones. The hoax then strongly urges you to send this all the females you know. Please don't! The facts are in Australia whether you are on a land line or a mobile phone, you should dial 000. If you can't get through on 000 on your mobile phone you won't be able to get 112 either! To the network they are the same number. 112  is for when you travel. Thanks to Sandy for sending this one in.