JUST as consumers’ signatures are occasionally forged on legally binding contracts, so are some call recordings manipulated or totally falsified in order to falsify a consumer’s consent to a deal.
With consumers seldom getting access to those call recordings, which take the place of legally binding contracts when consumers do deals over the phone instead of face-to-face, the perpetrators have a good chance of getting away with it.
Retired school teacher Gail Lombard of Glen Anil, Durban, who has been an Edgars account holder for 20 years, but very rarely spends on her account, is adamant that someone faked her voice in a recording of “her” agreeing to an Edgars club membership for R54.50 a month, back in March.
She hadn’t spent on her account all year, so she was surprised to get an SMS from Edgars, saying she owed more than R200. That’s when she discovered that she’d been charged a monthly club fee since March.
At her local Edgars branch she denied ever being consulted about the membership, or consenting to it, so she was given “the benefit of the doubt” – the membership was cancelled and the accumulated fees waived.
But Lombard remained unsettled, wanting to hear her “consent” call.
In Your Corner took up her request with Edcon, and after some technical delays, she was invited to listen to the call at her local Edgars branch.
“I knew immediately that that was not me,” Lombard said.
The recording – a copy of which was later sent to Lombard at her request – lasts just 56 seconds, mostly comprising the agent detailing the club benefits, including “discounted fashion vouchers” and “up to R100” off meals at unnamed restaurants. The agent does none of the customary verification – asking for her ID number, account number, address – to which to send the vouchers – and “Mrs Lombard” asks not a single question, her responses being limited to one word at a time: five words in total.
As telesales calls go, it’s irregular, if not implausible.
Edcon’s executive manager of group services, Deven Naicker, said Edcon’s “affiliated third party company” handled club memberships, and stringent processes were in place to ensure the validity of all product enrolments, including doing regular audits.
He acknowledged that the call in question “is not up to our standards” and said the company would revisit the approved call script for this supplier as well as their audit practices. “Clearly this is not a best practice and not what we want,” he said, while insisting the call was genuine.
Cellphone network logs confirm that Edcon’s partner company did call Lombard on the day in question.
MTN has a record of a 71-second call to Lombard’s number – 15 seconds longer than the call recording Lombard was sent by Edcon.
Lombard remains adamant that she never agreed to the club membership, and that it’s “patently not me” in the disputed recording.
Unfortunately, given that the “Mrs Lombard” in the recording only says five words, separately, in those 56 seconds, the voice can’t be forensically identified – a recording of at least a few minutes for the disputed voice is required.
Beware telesales forgery
With consumers seldom getting access to those call recordings, which take the place of legally binding contracts when consumers do deals over the phone instead of face-to-face, the perpetrators have a good chance of getting away with it.
Retired school teacher Gail Lombard of Glen Anil, Durban, who has been an Edgars account holder for 20 years, but very rarely spends on her account, is adamant that someone faked her voice in a recording of “her” agreeing to an Edgars club membership for R54.50 a month, back in March.
She hadn’t spent on her account all year, so she was surprised to get an SMS from Edgars, saying she owed more than R200. That’s when she discovered that she’d been charged a monthly club fee since March.
At her local Edgars branch she denied ever being consulted about the membership, or consenting to it, so she was given “the benefit of the doubt” – the membership was cancelled and the accumulated fees waived.
But Lombard remained unsettled, wanting to hear her “consent” call.
In Your Corner took up her request with Edcon, and after some technical delays, she was invited to listen to the call at her local Edgars branch.
“I knew immediately that that was not me,” Lombard said.
The recording – a copy of which was later sent to Lombard at her request – lasts just 56 seconds, mostly comprising the agent detailing the club benefits, including “discounted fashion vouchers” and “up to R100” off meals at unnamed restaurants. The agent does none of the customary verification – asking for her ID number, account number, address – to which to send the vouchers – and “Mrs Lombard” asks not a single question, her responses being limited to one word at a time: five words in total.
As telesales calls go, it’s irregular, if not implausible.
Edcon’s executive manager of group services, Deven Naicker, said Edcon’s “affiliated third party company” handled club memberships, and stringent processes were in place to ensure the validity of all product enrolments, including doing regular audits.
He acknowledged that the call in question “is not up to our standards” and said the company would revisit the approved call script for this supplier as well as their audit practices. “Clearly this is not a best practice and not what we want,” he said, while insisting the call was genuine.
Cellphone network logs confirm that Edcon’s partner company did call Lombard on the day in question.
MTN has a record of a 71-second call to Lombard’s number – 15 seconds longer than the call recording Lombard was sent by Edcon.
Lombard remains adamant that she never agreed to the club membership, and that it’s “patently not me” in the disputed recording.
Unfortunately, given that the “Mrs Lombard” in the recording only says five words, separately, in those 56 seconds, the voice can’t be forensically identified – a recording of at least a few minutes for the disputed voice is required.
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