Reports are surfacing that a mystery cellular phone virus has infected more than 3 million phones world-wide ? although Bermuda is not thought to have been affected as yet.

An article on CNN's website said that cellular phone giants Motorola and Nokia have confirmed the virus' existence and are urging extra vigilance when answering unknown callers.

The way the virus accesses the handset is by way of a call which identifies itself on the phone's display screen simply as ACE. Answering that call, according to the report, allows the virus into the handset which then immediately gets to work on the SIM card ? erasing its memory and cutting the user off from the network to which they are subscribed.

Speaking to , Cingular general manager Cheryl Packwood said she was not aware of any virus problem currently on the Island, but would be following up on the information over the weekend.

Cell phone viruses are reportedly the latest craze among unscrupulous geeks, frustrated with the increasingly sophisticated anti-virus software now available for computers.