Test alert by Verizon leads to confusion in US

December 13, 2011

Verizon almost caused an emergency after sending out an alert telling customers to seek shelter because of a “civil emergency.”

No actual emergency existed.

The cell phone company was doing a test of its emergency notification system, but forgot to say that in the text message.

The company didn't say why the message was sent without being labeled as a test or whether Monday's incident was the first time such a mistake had occurred,” ABC News reports. Read more