Date bug hits phones in Australia

6 Jan 2010

The date bug which is interfering with Aussie point of sale transactions has spread to some Windows mobile phones.

The glitch means that text messages received since New Year's Eve will appear with a 2016 date. Card scanners in thousands of Australian shops have also been hit, as we reported yesterday. Bank of Queensland systems, believing it was 2016, rejected most payment cards because they'd passed their expiry date.

Windows Mobile users, running versions 6.1 and 6.5, may have noticed text messages from the future - all messages received since New Year's Eve will have a 2016 dateline, according to Techradar.com.

A Microsoft spokesman said: "Microsoft is aware of reports that phone messages received after 1/1/2010 may be dated 2016. These reports have not yet resulted in widespread customer inquiries; however, we are working closely with our manufacturing and mobile operator partners to investigate the cause and correct the issue as appropriate."

print this article