‘False’ BlackBerry deal report flatters to deceive

Confusion prevailed amidst BlackBerry users in the UAE on Tuesday evening, following a “false” report that the Canada based Research in Motion had reached out to the UAE authorities and that the ban could soon be lifted. Messages were “quickly” being circulated among BlackBerry users and on Twitter, no sooner had the report been uploaded on the Yahoo website. The report titled, “RIM Agrees to UAE Monitoring Request” by Yahoo Finance, was uploaded at around 9.30pm has since been removed. While there has been no official confirmation from RIM, company officials have instead stated that they would not bow down to pressure. The report said Research In Motion (RIM) is taking steps to allay UAE’s concerns and released a statement emphasising its commitment to security and also met with UAE authorities and offered to give them the information they need to monitor BlackBerry services. “After some persuasion, the (BlackBerry) representative agreed that they can provide the Metadata of the message ie the IP address of the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) and PIN & IMEI of the BlackBerry mobile,” the report said quoting internal notes from the meeting. R Johny, who purchased a Blackberry Bold on Sunday said he was thrilled to read the report on the internet, especially after it was forwarded as a message by his friend closely associated with RIM office in the region. “I am sure RIM officials are working with UAE officials. If they can work out a deal with other western countries and India, they should be able to do so here as well. Otherwise it would be a disservice to its subscribers in the region,” he said However soon he received another message stating that the report could be false. Nisha Varghese, another Blackberry service provider said that she was thrilled when she initially heard the news. “But reader comments to the story clearly said that the report was false and misleading. Whoever has planned this has done it well and has added to the confusion among Blackberry fans,” she said.