A joke among friends ended up inadvertently boosting the Labour Party’s fundraising telethon last Sunday while causing embarrassment and a substantial expense for Mater Dei’s chief executive officer, Ivan Falzon.
A number of ‘angry’ Vodafone clients have contacted this newspaper claiming that they were ‘victims’ of what initially appeared to be a scam.
They said last Sunday, while Labour’s fundraising marathon was in full swing, they received a message ostensibly from Vodafone on behalf of Mr Falzon asking them to send an SMS with their name and surname to a particular number in order to help the Mater Dei CEO retrieve his data as he had misplaced his mobile. Many of them, who apparently were on Mr Falzon’s mobile directory, replied immediately to the request.
However, to their surprise, they received an SMS message from the Labour Party thanking them for their donation. “I thought this must be some kind of scam by the government to make me donate money to Labour,” an angry woman told the Times of Malta.
“I called Vodafone to see what was going on and they told me that they didn’t send such messages. I thought it must have been some ‘crook’ from Muscat’s government,” the staunch PN voter said.
“I just replied immediately to the SMS message without knowing that I was sending money to Labour,” another caller, a senior official at Mater Dei told this newspaper. “Ivan [Falzon] is a good friend and I wanted to help since he lost his mobile. But surely I never expected to send any money to the PL headquarters. I don’t do these things,” he said.
When contacted, Vodafone dismissed any association with Labour’s fundraising activity and distanced itself from the SMSs sent on behalf of the Mater Dei CEO.
While confirming that the company had received similar complaints, a company spokeswoman said they were investigating. “We are looking into the merits of this case and, if appropriate, we will take action accordingly,” the spokeswoman said.
When contacted, an embarrassed Mr Falzon said he was the victim of a joke played by one of his friends. “A friend of mine, obviously without my consent, played a joke on me by sending this message from my mobile to some on my contacts list,” Mr Falzon said apologetically.
“He did this while we were having a drink last Sunday but I only realised what had happened when I started receiving calls from ‘angry’ Nationalist supporters,” Mr Falzon said. “The problem is that, in reality, I was the victim in all of this as I ended up having to refund all these ‘fake’ donations to the Labour Party out of my own pocket,” Mr Falzon said, trying to make the most of the funny episode.“With friends like these…,” Mr Falzon laughed. During last Sunday’s fundraising activity, Labour managed to get over €600,000 in donations. It is not known how much are attributed to Mr Falzon’s ‘friends’
During last Sunday’s fundraising activity, Labour managed to raise over €600,000 in donations. It is not known how much are attributed to Mr Falzon’s ‘friends’.