Mobile service providers in Pakistan have been inundated by calls from subscribers worried by a prank message that they could die of a deadly virus being transmitted via their phones.

The rumor was so effective that some mosques in the countrys biggest city, Karachi, made announcements that people were being killed by a mobile virus and they should be aware of Gods wrath.

In a prank reminiscent of the plot in the hit Hollywood movie The Ring in which people die within a week after watching a video, the prankster warned users that a deadly virus transmitted through phones had killed 20 people.

There are more than 52 million mobile users among 160 million people in Pakistan.

In the Reuters report, a spokeswoman for Warid Telecom confirmed that the carriers customer service centers had been inundated with subscribers inquiring about the so-called virus. Cellular operators are reportedly trying to calm down subscribers by telling them that the rumors are completely baseless and do not make any sense in technological terms.