George Kidd (formerly) of PhonepayPlus lies and lies on camera

[mike99]

George Kidd lying to Telecom TV

Lie 1: There are only a few bad apples in PRS

So George, from the following list (which comprises the major PRS providers), please a pick one good apple:

mBlox
Tanla
Zamano
Dialogue
Opera
WIN

Lie 2: PP+ imposes "bars" on PRS firms that defraud or steal from people and these bars prevent further fraud and theft.

In reality, a PP+ "bar" prevents a particular service provider from teaming up with a particular content provider to run a particular scam. To get round the "bar", all the firms have to do is think of a different scam or a different name for the content provider.

Lie 3: The currentconsultation on Mobile phone-paid services and their Marketing will result in fewer spam messages.

First of all this consultation has not yet produced any response from PP+ 7 months on (cf the "2 months" mentioned by George). Secondly, unsolicited promotional messages are the responsibility of ICO (which never takes action against anyone) and unstoppable if they come from abroad. George is conflating this problem with that of unsolicited reverse charge messages. These could be stopped if and when PP+ decides to respond to the consultation and do something; but will it?

Lie 4: PP+ does not need additional powers.

Actually I suppose that this is not really a lie. If we assume that PP+ wishes PRS crime to continue at current rates while PP+ continues to pretend to regulate it (which would seem to be the implication of this interview and everything else that comes out of PP+) then I suppose it is true: PP+ does not need additional powers.

George is no longer in charge at PP+ so this is all rather old hat; nevertheless, it is yet another confirmation (if any were needed) of what those of us who wish to see the effective regulation of PRS are up against.