A man finds his mobile phone line terminated for apparently no reason, and calls the telco only to learn of his 'demise', Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao reported.

Mr Yu, 36, could not get through to his friend's mobile phone. The technician then learned from his friend that the phone line had been terminated.

As the friend's phone line was registered in his name, Mr Yu decided to call telco Starhub to learn more about the problem.

He was in for a rude shock.

The customer service staff on the other end of the line told him that the mobile phone account was cancelled because he was dead.

"The Starhub customer service officer told me that they received a copy of my death certificate. There was also an accompanying letter instructing the company to terminate a number of telephone lines, and Starhub followed the letter's instructions." Mr Yu told Lianhe Wanbao.

"I was shocked to hear what the Starhub employee said. I found it unbelievable; it is obvious that I'm alive and well, so how can I be 'dead' all of a sudden?"

Mr Yu brought this matter up to his family, but they were just as confused as he was.

He told the evening daily, "I have two other phone lines, but neither of them were terminated. If I had not tried contacting my friend, I would not have known about my own 'demise'. If this was a prank someone played on me, I think it has gone too far."

In its response to Lianhe Wanbao, Starhub said that the error came about because the wrong phone number was terminated.

The telco attributed Mr Yu's unpleasant experience to a case of human error as a member of the staff had keyed in the wrong telephone number into the system.

A Starhub spokesperson also said that Mr Yu's phone line had been restored and the company had apologised for the error. Mr Yu had also accepted the company's apologies.

The spokesperson said that errors like these are extremely rare, and the telco has since reminded its staff to be more careful.