MBOMBELA – Were it not for the vigilance of a bank employee, a well-known local optometrist would have been robbed of almost R30 000 in a cellphone scam currently doing the rounds. This also led to the arrest of a woman who was now being charged with fraud.
Cellphone users were urged to be on the alert for suspicious activity and not to respond to random messages and divulge personal information.
Mr Dave Kenyon received an SMS on Friday February 13, notifying him that his account had been credited with R2, followed by a reference number. He ignored the message. About 25 minutes later he received another SMS: “We have received a request for a new or replacement SIM card on your line due to possible theft or loss. If you suspect fraud and have not requested this new SIM card, immediately contact Vodacom Customer Care.” When Kenyon tried to phone Vodacom, he received a network-rejection message, stating that the SIM card was already blocked and swapped.
Kenyon started to panic because all his banking details were linked to his number. Whenever a transaction went through, the bank would contact him on his cellphone. Should thieves have access to his phone, they would be able to approve transactions.
The following day Dave’s wife, Barbara, reported the case to Vodacom’s shop at Pinnacle Centre. “The unhelpful and irritated shop assistant told me this happens to Vodacom customers all the time.” After numerous attempts to block the original number, which Vodacom staff confirmed was being used at the time, Kenyon was informed that R100 had been transferred to the old number.
After a long struggle, Vodacom still hadn’t blocked the SIM card and the phone could still receive phone calls.
Last Monday, Kenyon’s Telkom landline could not receive or make phone calls. They investigated the matter and discovered the line had been sabotaged. “This prevented the bank from phoning Dave to confirm transactions being made from his account,” said Ms Kenyon. “Moments after we fixed the lines a call came through from Absa to confirm a cheque for R29 800 for Ms Ms Nadine Kennedy,” she added. “She said she had phoned Dave’s cellphone and the ‘gentleman’ informed her that all was in order. Luckily, the lady was astute and phoned Dave’s practice. Again, we were lucky that we were able to take that call.”
Kennedy came to the bank to cash the cheque, but the Absa employee managed to lock her in the business section of the branch. Police investigated and confirmed that the cheque had been washed. Kennedy was arrested and Absa filed a case of fraud against her. Kennedy (36) had been remanded in custody and appeared in court yesterday. At the time of going to print the outcome was not yet available.
Vodacom’s managing executive in Mpumalanga, Ms Louisa van Beek, said over and above a forensic team dedicated to tracking syndicates and scam artists, they also had other security measures in place. “To try and prevent this we implemented an immediate warning system to customers which send them a verification SMS that a SIM swap has been requested. Once a customer phones our call centre to indicate that a SIM swap has not been requested and that they suspect fraudulent activity, Vodacom will block the illegally swapped SIM immediately. The original SIM and the illegally swapped SIM will then be deleted from our network.”
Van Beek said the only way the customer could prevent being a victim of a scam was to refrain from divulging any personal information to strange websites.
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