Former communications minister Faith Muthambi. Picture: GCIS
Hackers managed to take control of Faith Muthambi’s phone and used it to solicit money from her friends and colleagues, a report has revealed.
The Sunday World has stated that the former communication, and public service and administration minister’s ANC comrades and friends have been receiving a deluge of WhatsApp messages from her number, imploring them to urgently send money via ewallet.
Muthambi is reported to have sent a message to all her contacts on Sunday August 12th, warning them of the scam. On that day, the former minister found out that the scammers had already manage to get hold of an amount between R2,000 to R5,000 from 15 people she knew.
“Dear family and friends: If you receive any whatsapp asking you for money, like the one above, it’s not me. Somoene has hacked my phone and Im still attending to it with Vodacom,” the paper quotes the message reading.
Muthambi has since taken up the matter with Vodacom as she says the hack took place through an unauthorised SIM swap of her number. She also says the scammers left her with a huge airtime and data bill in the process.
“This is serious negligence, Vodacom must take full responsibility. This is very traumatising. I feared they were going to deplete my accounts and leave me with nothing,” the paper quotes Muthambi saying.
Vodacom has confirmed it’s investigating the matter.