Phone Hacking - I Tried to tell them. Nobody listened
PHONE HACKING
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How I tried to raise the alarm about Phonehacking in 1999
PHONE HACKING

Daily Mirror MGN Ltd Invoice dated 1999 titled 'Mobile Phone Scandal' below. How Piers Morgan's Daily Mirror and Rupert Murdoch's The Sun newspapers, kept the phonehacking method to themselves when really they should have exposed the issue and warned the public.

For more on this story visit    www.hackergate.co.uk 


 
This is my story about how I discovered a threat to National Security in 1999 and was ignored.
 
 

My name is Steven Nott and below is an article from the South Wales Argus dated 13th October 1999 which shows how I tried to raise the alarm to the British authorites about the possible interception of voicemail otherwise known as phone hacking. The article came out after a long campaign to make everyone aware of the insecure Voicemail system on the Vodafone Recall service. Because of Vodafone's lack of care towards customer safety, I took my story to the Daily Mirror, when Piers Morgan was Editor, to name and shame them. Things didn't go quite to plan because The Daily Mirror, after much excitement, decided not to print the story even though they said it was going to be the biggest that decade. I then went to their rival newspaper The Sun, in Wapping at the News International HQ and asked for help to expose Vodafone and also The Daily Mirror. It was a catastrophic decision to show the newspapers about phone hacking but the public needed warning. I informed New Scotland Yard, Security Services, Home Office, The DTI and my MP about my concerns and never had any help from them. What was I supposed to do ?. This was all in 1999 and my full story is documented below. Please bear in mind when reading this, I was trying to raise the alarm to the serious implications about voicemail interception back then and if Vodafone hadn't tried to wriggle out of it saying 'change your PIN' every time, then perhaps we wouldn't be where we are today. What would you do if you discovered a security risk that was a national threat ?

 

 

South Wales Argus October 1999 - Anyone can hear private messages

 

This is briefly what happened in 1999.
 
  1. I discovered a risk in Vodafone Recall Service ( voicemail ) in early 1999.
  2. I attempted to get Vodafone to change their system because the security implications were enormous.
  3. Because Vodafone didn't see the risk I called The Daily Mirror and was put through to a person calling herself Oonagh Blackman and explained the story and the problem I had with Vodafone and explained the serious implications of voicemail interception.  I gave her the instructions over the phone, how to access Vodafone's Recall service using the default PIN.
  4. The person calling herself Oonagh Blackman from the Daily Mirror saw the potential for a big story and followed up with investigations by telling me they were accessing the voicemail of publicly profiled people and then calling them afterwards explaining how they'd accessed their voicemail and wanted to know what they thought, so they could run the story with lots of mobile user reaction. I was told by the person calling herself Oonagh, because of the amount of telephone numbers they had, it was a massive task and was taking longer than expected. I was told everyone in the office was on the story and were ringing everyone.
  5. After 12 days, the person calling herself Oonagh Blackman, said the The Daily Mirror wasn't interested anymore. I couldn't understand why seeing as I was told that most of the newsdesks resources were being used to cover the story. We had an argument over the issue of not going to print. I had a payment of £100 sent to me for the story which was never published. I received an invoice with the cheque dated 30th September 1999, titled 'Mobile Phone Scandal'. See below for scanned image of invoice. I never wanted anything for the story but I wasn't going to send the cheque back either.
  6. I went to The Sun newspaper and met with Paul Crosbie Consumer affairs. Told him the issue, and told him about the Daily Mirror. Paul Crosbie said they would go to print as it was a big story and couldn't believe The Daily Mirror hadn't run with it. Nothing was ever published.
  7. I called and wrote to New Scotland Yard expressing my concerns and telling them I may have inadvertently giving 2 tabloids an easy way to get news scoops. I never had a reply.
  8. I called and wrote to the DTI in Victoria and the Home Office explaining the same. No replies.
  9. I started to call every National newspaper to explain what I had done. No stories printed. Until May 2000 Mail on Sunday. See below. 
  10. I called The BBC and they got me on Radio 5 to talk about the security issue with Vodafone Recall service. Mike Caldwell from Vodafone was the spokesperson from Vodafone's Newbury HQ. The show was Fi Glovers show and aired on 22nd October 1999 at 1345 hrs and the interviewer was Adam Kirtley.
  11. Vodafone didn't want a fuss - They were going through a takeover at the time with Mannessman, the German Mobile group. I guess any bad press at the time wouldn't have been good for the deal.
  12. BBC also filmed me in Blue Peter garden for when the news broke as they said there's no way it would be kept quiet. Too important. Nothing happened after that. I kept in touch with Nicola Carslaw at the BBC for some weeks afterwards.
  13. I called ITN spoke to Chris Choi, who was very excited. A news crew was sent to film me at my house. Chris Choi said it could possibly be in the evening news that day. Nothing happened. Called Chris Choi, he wasn't interested anymore.
  14. The South Wales Argus ran a story about me and what I'd discovered. This was October 13th 1999.
  15. I called my MP Paul Murphy. He didn't want to know and said it had nothing to do with him. This was in early 2000.
  16. I wrote to the DTI again for fear that the The Daily Mirror who had problems with insider trader dealing with James Hipwell and Anil Bhoyrul ( The City Slickers story ) I thought there could be a link with share trading and the phone hacking method.
  17. In 2005/6 two people were arrested and imprisoned , Glenn Mulcaire and Clive Goodman. I thought that was the end of it and decided not to get back involved
  18. In late 2010 problems in the news again with News of the World and Andy Coulson and newspapers and TV companies saying phone hacking started in 2005 etc. I decided to call Operation Weeting and explain the story I had.
  19. I proceded to call newspapers etc and tell them my story. All of them were interested but none of them ran any stories. However the The Mail on Sunday ran a story called 'Mobile phone snooper scam' on May 7th 2000. See below for article.
  20. I then started to call solicitors of those people apparently been phonehacked so they could know about my efforts to raise the alarm in 1999.
  21. I was invited down to Mayfair in London and made a statement to a solicitor for one of the civil cases sueing Newsgroup newspapers ( Murdoch ) and Glenn Mulcaire.
  22. Operation Weeting interviewed me on 18th July 2011. I told them my story. Operation Weeting explained my information may be important in the investigation.
  23. Because the newspapers weren't interested but social media were, I set up a website/blog in mid July 2011.
  24. Lord Justice Leveson asked people to come forward before 31st August 2011 on national television.So I emailed them with my information. This was for the public inquiry due to start in september 2011.
  25. I have had various online publicity from the BBC news website www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14431473 , Daily Mail Online  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023125/Phone-hacking-scandals-fault-Steve-Nott-told-Sun-Mirror-access-voicemails.html?ito=feeds-newsxml , The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/aug/07/phone-hacking-daily-mirror, The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/this-scandal-is-all-my-fault-says-salesman-2332669.html and Private Eye magazine. Thanks to them my story has finally received widespread global interest.
  26. I then found more information in my attic, ie Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd invoice and contact names and numbers for the 2 tabloids. Paul Crosbie and the person calling herself Oonagh Blackman. Paul Crosbie has confirmed my meeting with him however I am unable to contact Oonagh Blackman from The Daily Mirror. For this reason, I have used the words, 'the person calling herself Oonagh Blackman' throughout my blog to prevent any libel case against me. I cannot prove the person calling herself Oonagh Blackman was the actual person I spoke to at The Daily Mirror even though she said who she was every time I called her number.
  27. I have sent these extra details on to Operation Weeting to help them further in their investigation. 
  28. I have been in touch with many people involved in the phone hacking scandal including Chris Bryant MP, Tom Watson MP, Therese Coffey MP, Rt Hon Lord Prescott and various others.
  29. I have also added everything I have onto my website / blog. My website has had a fair bit of interest recently. 
  30. I have requested help and advice from my MP Paul Murphy again but not yet received any reply.  

 

 

 

For more information please visit www.hackergate.co.uk

 


PHONE HACKING