One fraudulent SMS urging customers “Please call me – emergency.”

If you have received an alarming text message urging you to call the emergency department or the police, do not panic: it is a hoax.

And in case it is of any comfort, you are one of many others who have received similar messages intended to extract money by enticing mobile customers to call a premium number.

Jenny Felice, 25, said she was terrified when she received a message yesterday afternoon urging her to call the police as a loved one had been hurt.

“When I got the message my mind went straight to my brother who is crazy about adventure sports. He often leaves his phone behind and goes climbing, diving and all sorts. I tried calling him and, as usual, he didn’t answer. It was a nightmare,” she said.

After her attempts to reach her brother failed, Ms Felice frantically called the police and hospital, scared stiff that a loved one had been seriously injured.

The police were quick to react to the phenomenon and sent out a warning on social media and to the press, urging people to ignore the text messages.

They assured recipients that it was “highly unlikely” that any emergency service would contact them about a pressing matter in this way.

The police assured recipients that it was highly unlikely that any emergency service would contact them about a pressing matter in this way

The police urged people to spread the word because they had been inundated with calls from alarmed individuals, which calls were clogging up their lines.

The text messages, sent from a Kazakh number and in Maltese, came with a set of instructions. Some asked recipients to call a mysterious emergency number while others were more alarming and said a family member had been seriously injured.

The police warned that calling the number attached to the message could result in costly international charges.

Social media was flooded with complaints yesterday from people who had called the number only to find themselves lost down a virtual rabbit hole of automated voice commands.

Writing on her Facebook account, Stephanie Muscat said she had ended up with about 70 voice messages from the number after she called it once.

The Department of Information also issued a statement about similar messages being sent from a UK number.