Screenshots

Read The Nikolai Dobberstein Files Part 1 before you read Part 2.

The Nikolai Dobberstein Files... Part 2

This is the portion of reporters' grilling Head of product and new business Dr Nikolai Dobberstein June 5 that didn't get to print in the ad-spend hungry mainstream media yesterday.

The transcript is based on a tape recording obtained by Screenshots. See how the German skirted the questions without giving specifics to fixing the scam affecting its customers -- prepaid and postpaid:

Question (Press): Maxis preventive gateway - who is going to be operating?

Answer (Nikolai Dobberstein): At this point in time, we are evaluating -- chosen based on credentials of implementing whole preventive solution

We are not at liberty of mentioning name as we are in midst of evaluation

Q: Three of the ECPs are found to be repeatedly non-compliant with guidelines set by MCMC, did Maxis take any action against ECP?

A: As soon as ECP is found to be in violation, they will be suspended. That is our principle.

The key thing is to ensure that this is constantly updated.

We have no tolerance for violations.

There are enough customers who feel insecure.

If they are found in violation, suspend them and coordinate with other telcos.

I also want to say sometimes, they are suspended because they make technical mistakes, they will be suspended but it doesn't mean they deliberately set out to cheat the customers.

I think 2 to 3 months' suspension of small CP, could financially ruin the CP... so clearly, not in the interest of CP to cheat and violate. They will really suffer financially, severely.

Of course, there are black sheep out there, and we as industry as telco and MCMC -- we need to weed them out... doesn't mean everyone in violation had set out to cheat customers, i want to distinguish the intention, i think its very important.

Q (Reporter 1):Two ECPs who are repeat offenders, does that still mean they are doing it deliberately? People are being scammed, spammed and having to pay for it, how are you going to solve this

Q (Reporter 2): Prepaid users -- Maxis and Celcom customers do not know they are being spammed, no itemised billing, can I please find out what will be done?

A: We will implement itemised billing... (Maxis head of content development, T. Kugan, interjected and said: "By Q4, 2007")... definitely not as straight forward as doing it tomorrow, we are fully aware of a solution that consumers can benefit from

I think on repeat offenders - it is very clear that we will look closely at the ECPs.

We are going to work with people who we believe are capable, trustworthy and have consumers interest in mind... we believe this group has, we will stand by it.

Of course if they continue to be in violation by doing it deliberately - we will distance ourselves from them.

Look at positive angle of this programme, not just QC, we believe there is enormous growth in the market... 1.8 million of 8.5mil customers use such services.

More questions than answers

Interestingly, MCMC officials I spoke to were impressed with the 'spot-on questions' reported had asked, as transcribed above.

However, content providers, including those selected for, and excluded from, the 18-strong Maxis elite ECP Programme posed several unaswered questions to Screenshots, which I summarised as follows:

1. By saying that the ECPs implicated for repeated non-compliance were not out to cheat, was Nikolai Dobberstein coming to their defence so that MCMC can bend the rules and let the rogues get away scot-free?


2. By defending the rogue players in an official function, was Maxis intent in protecting its top-line revenue irrespective of counter-ethical conduct by the rogue ECPs?


3. Technical glitches... is Maxis network security susceptible vulnerable to frauds? Is indefinite suspension of MacroKiosk's 32400 shortcode since October 2006 an overkill for mere "technical glitches... not out to cheat"?


4. Bearing the fact that DiGi had implemented itemised prepaid billing since April 2004 last year, and Celcom reportedly planning to implement it this July, is Maxis' itemised prepaid billing targeted for Q4 2007 a delay tactic so that the rogues could continue to scam more prepaid users?


5. Is MCMC agreeable to Maxis' Q4 2007 timeline for the implementation of itemised prepaid billing?


6. Is MacroKiosk a gateway provider -- as its COO had claimed in the Press -- or a pure-play external content provider that qualified itself to be on the Maxis elite list of ECPs?


7. Was and is MCMC totally fooled and confused between SMS Scams and SMS Spoofing?

Annoyingly, there were Content Providers contacted by Screenshots who equated the Maxis Elite ECP Partners list as an "either you are with us or against us" coercive tactic, and for obvious reasons, they requested this blogger to mask their identities. All of them feared to be excluded from the business, a calamity that had befallen AKN-MTech (details in The Nikolai Dobberstein Files Part 3, soon).

When I stood up Ali Hanafiah and Azizan Affandi for twenty minutes at the sideline of the Maxis PR do on Tuesday, I wanted them to understand that the ball in now in MCMC's court to uphold 'Integrity and morality' that Rosli Shukor, former Deputy KSU1 of KTAK had stood for. Mr MCMC, that's Dr Halim Shafie should remind himself that MCMC's job is to regulate the industry at the behest of the law, a not to meddle in the business operations of the Celcos it licensed.

The Celco bluff

Meanwhile, The Star and the Chinese Press have started to call the Celco bluff.

Here's the report in The Star (June 7, 2007) where Maxis' last-in-the-Celco-industry record for delaying the implementation of itemised prepaid billing was queried:

Here's a 2-story report in Oriental Daily News (Page A5, June 6, 2007) where the identity of the rogue ECPs, published on MCMC website but honoured as content providers of good conduct in the Maxis Elite ECP Programme, were spelt out clearly:

Highlights: MacroKiosk, Nextnation and Dubaitech are repeat offenders listed in Maxis Elite ECP programme

Here's a 3-story report in Sin Chew Daily (June 5, 2007) evening edition, where Mok Yii Chek, CEO of Everest Web Sdn Bhd which was excluded from Maxis Elite ECP Programme, was interviewed for details of the SMS Scam that has been taking place since mid 2006, not dissimilar to what has been exposed in Screenshots:

Headline: Fake SMS requests scam prepaid users, millions victimsed

Headline: Handset vendors sell-off users' mobile numbers to frauds

Headline: Only DiGi provides itemised bills for prepaid users; Authorities won't act on scam unless there is consolidated voice of complaints

Read the Maxis-AKN fallout, and the riddle of Maxis elite ECP list that endorsed repeat offenders identified in the MCMC Hall of Shame -- in this blog entry.

THE BALL THAT'S IN MCMC'S COURT. When will MCMC update its Hall of Fame?

The last list concluded with 22 cases of non-compliance which ended probes as at April 2007. Fresh non-compliance cases had since emerged, involving rogues who head breached more than the maximum tolerance of triple non-compliance.

Case in hand is MacroKiosk, which had evidently scammed a Screenshots reader a total of 210 spams, spanning 17 days from 18:17:58 hr April 24 through 17:55:19hr May 13, 2007 via the faulted short code 32355 AFTER the MCMC sanction. See Screenshots blog entry here.

How convinced is MCMC over Dobberstein's rationale that it was "technical glitches" and the "CP was not to cheat"?

We are talking about halal money in an Islam Hadhari country. How much has Maxis refunded to their mobile users spammed and scammed -- postpaid and prepaid? We know of Germans who still get Koshered in this modern world.