The phone in the Czech Republic received an SMS message claiming to be presidential candidate Petr Pavel. In it, the unknown sender calls on the recipient of the message to come forward with military equipment, as they are about to be called up for the war in Ukraine. Petr Pavel distanced himself from such SMS, telephone operator O2 and Police of the Czech Republic are investigating the situation.
“Good morning, this is General Pavel. With this message, I would like to thank you for your vote in the presidential election campaign. I will ask you to report to the nearest ACR branch, where you will be equipped with the necessary armor for mobilization in Ukraine ,” wrote the fictitious message.
Police do not yet know how many people received similar messages. Social network users noticed the problem. The messages come from the official looking “SMSinfo” gateway.
⚠️⚠️⚠️ Someone texted this, warn your loved ones! pic.twitter.com/11lGzmFE0W
— Andrej Rusčák 🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@andrejruscak)
January 18, 2023
“Know that we’re dealing with this situation. If you receive a similar SMS, we’ll be happy to send you details about the message via DM. This will help us,” said O2’s Twitter feed maintenance and support.
The police have also started solving this case. “We are aware of this case, we are working on it and we would like to ask anyone who received the text message to contact us,” they said on Twitter.
We are aware of the case, we are working on it, and we would like to ask anyone who received the SMS to contact us at pp.tisk@pcr.cz. Thank You! https://t.co/so18ibp6p0
— Czech Republic Police (@PolicieCZ)
January 18, 2023
“I am not at all surprised that the lies that Mr. Babiš posted on billboards are then sent anonymously to people via SMS and chain letters as warning messages. This is the world of Andrej Babiš, behind him all the pro-Russian forces and conspiracies are marching. This is is a world I don’t want for the Czech Republic – and against it in this election I offer decency, truth, dignity and respect for the rules,” Petr Pavel said on social media.
“Tv nerd. Passionate food specialist. Travel practitioner. Web guru. Hardcore zombieaholic. Unapologetic music fanatic.”
