“Happy New Year, Dave”: cabinet minister continues to bombard private citizens with creepy messages

Manuel Mallia, the Minister for the Digital Economy and Gambling, who used to be Minister for the Police, until he found himself embroiled in a shoot-out involving his chauffeur and his small daughter who was at the chauffeur’s home while he was out partying, has continued to bombard people he thinks might vote for him with festive messages on their personal, private mobile telephone numbers.

Or at least, they thought those numbers were private and rather than being happy to receive a festive message from Manuel Mallia, they are weirded out and annoyed that he somehow managed to get hold of their number, which makes them feel monitored and tracked by Big Fat Brother.

I received this email today from a reader who hasn’t lived in Malta for a while:

I left my old mobile phone SIM active in a PABX in Malta so that I can receive SMS messages. I just checked in today and found one from ‘Minister Emmanuel Mallia’. What is most scary is that he calls me by my (truncated) first name and I really don’t think that is registered in too many places – I am actually quite careful about my online privacy.