UK Terrorist Warnings: Beware of people bearing PAYG mobile phones

You should be nervous if you see anyone with large quantities of Pay-As-You-Go mobile phones, according to advertising across the UK press last week.

I caught this one in the Metro on Friday:

Here’s a zoom-in of it:

Terrorists need communication
Anonymous, pay-as-you-go and stolen mobiles are typical. Have you seen someone with large quantities of mobiles? Has it made you suspicious?

Agreed. Yes it’s an issue. Obviously you’d have to be an ultra thick terrorist to use your Vodafone contract handset which you opened with two proofs of address 😉

However I am curious to undersand the definition of ‘large quantities of mobiles’. You see, I have three handsets on me right now.

At home I’ve got at least 10 in plain view.

For a large part of this afternoon while I’ve been sat in this bar working, I’ve had three different handsets out. Here’s two of them (the other one was taking the picture):

Now, people have been passing and looking. I wonder, do I qualify as a suspect? Clearly those handsets aren’t your average pay-as-you-go Christmas-Cracker handsets that you can pick up for £3 each. But, you know, I wonder.

I wonder if the advert couldn’t have been worded differently to take account of the country’s mobile geeks?