WARNING! Your cellphone is a pickpocket

Issue #118, 1st August 2009


WARNING! Your cellphone is a pickpocket

Unsolicited content services are rich pickings for unscrupulous network providers.

It appears that pre-paid subscribers are even being hit when they don't reply to messages because they don't have air time. When they later top up their account, the amount "owing" to the WASP is instantly deducted.

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Reader's comments

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Submitted by : Donovan on 2009-08-19 13:14:18
Mr. Nose will be pleased to, er, nose, that the head of Vodacom's WASP business was toting a copy of nothing other that...you guessed it, NOSE118, about with him in the office. Bit of a worry down there in the trenches, I gather.
 
Submitted by : Graham on 2009-08-17 16:22:21
Another organisation by the name of Sybase Tel 0861116666 has also got onto the band wagon and I have skimmed my account.
 
Submitted by : CL on 2009-08-10 15:37:50
I am an MTN prepaid subscriber and sometimes receive up to two of the
unsolicited 'Xclusive Erotic.....' and SA Aduly Network..' or 'Sexy Sophie a.....' etc which I have never opened or accessed. How do I find out if my prepaid account has been debited for these. Also, do I write a letter to MTN to block these in future?

If I have been debited for these you are kindly to add me to your victims list for the class action.

Celeste

Editor's Note
Celeste,
It's highly likely that you've been charged repeatedly for the crap. The easiest way of knowing is loading your line with specific amount then avoid making any calls for a week. You thereafter check your balance... you'd then know whether you've been paying for these 'contents'. Alternatively, you call MTN and request to know how many content services you could be subscribed to. You then take it from there.
 
Submitted by : Paul on 2009-08-07 10:39:54
Prior to receiving your latest edition as a company we had been endeavoring to remove ”Content Services” charges from various phones contracted to Vodacom which some of our staff had been duped into agreeing too by not responding to Vodacom’s initial SMS which came at a cost, whilst others had knowingly enter into these agreements. With each turn it became harder to rectify, then this week all of sudden the canceling of such agreements was greatly simplified. I can only presume it was your ”Noseweek” front page article that assisted in this regard – great work and a good mag.

Editor's Note
We are glad to have been of some help
 
Submitted by : Ant on 2009-08-04 08:48:15
Thanks for highlighting these rip-offs. I have often questioned Vodacom about my account, especially when I travel to places like Phillipines and I receive sms after sms "welcoming me to Manila" and asking me to use their services. I get billed for all these by Vodacom, but they ignore my billing queries. I also am billed for international calls and the numbers are not listed. I pay for itemised billing so when I query this it is also conveniently ignored.

Editor's Note
When you pay for itemised billing, all out-going calls (voice and text) must be listed. You pay for it, they must provide it.
 
Submitted by : Don on 2009-08-01 23:21:57
My wife loves competitions and often is successful. She was caught in a negative option scam thanks to Vodacom.

A summary of this ongoing saga which I am persuing in an attempt to get some answers to my simple questions is available.

As to what I think, it is quite clear that Vodacom, and probably the other "service providers" as well, are facilitators and parties to outright theft in the knowledge that the authorities, who should put a stop to this, are dysfuntional like most government departments.
 
Submitted by : Frits on 2009-08-01 23:14:37
Excellent article!

We are all very impressed by the quality of investigative journalism and the professional standard of writing.

Thanks for the good work,
 
Submitted by : Scott on 2009-07-31 16:02:19
I have just received an sms linking me to a porn site. I did not subscribe to this and expect a fat bill this month for the "service". Think about it - who on Earth would knowlingly pay R15 for an SMS with a link to a porn site??? Just go to Google and get 1.4 trillion for free.

It's a scam, the service providers know about it, profit from it and it will take a revolution to bring it down.
 
Submitted by : Toni on 2009-07-30 22:27:33
I run several MTN contracts and have been a victim of this type of fraud more than once.
Feel free to add me to the class action victims list.
 
Submitted by : Ikaneng on 2009-07-30 18:04:34
A friend requested that I help unsubscribe him from some service that he suspected that his kids had subscribed his number to without his consent. On accessing the website, it required a cell number and a password. I opted for the forgotten password link, and the website responded that it didnt have that number on the database. This just confirms the extent of the fraud, in that numbers are most likely just chosen randomly, and each forking out no less than R10/sms for an indefinite period of time. Vodacom must publish how much they get from content.
 
Submitted by : RAY on 2009-07-30 15:13:47
I wrote about a complaint I had about Mira Networks on 27 March in your comments column, concerning my young daughter who had her account debited with R50, two months in a row. I really appreciate you taking this story further.

It is incumbent on Vodacom to declare how much money they have made from this service. It is morally repugnant that Vodacom should have made any money at all from these operators. Needless to say my complaints to Vodacom and the regulatory authorities were initially ignored completely and then answered unsatisfactorily. I will keep on though. Thanks once again.

Editor's Note
Note that we are currently collecting victims' details upon a request by an attorney who is considering a class action... you are not alone.

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