How easy is it for someone to open a cellphone contract in your name?
It will no doubt surprise and anger legitimate subscribers – who are made to jump through several red tape hoops when applying for a contract – to discover that fraudsters have ways and means of bucking the system to obtain a contract, and a phone, in a stranger’s name.
In the space of less than two days last week, I received complaints about three fraudulent cellphone contracts with three different networks.
Kuben Govender’s is by far the most intriguing, and revealing, of the three cases. An existing MTN contract subscriber, he acquired two new cellphone contracts in his name on September 29 at an MTN outlet in a KwaZulu-Natal town. (Why I’m not naming it will be revealed later.)
When he protested to MTN’s customer care line he hadn’t made the applications, he was told to produce a copy of his ID and an affidavit stating he’d been the victim of identity fraud – the standard corporate response to a consumer’s “it wasn’t me” complaint.
Meanwhile, Govender sourced the KZN store’s contact details and made a call. The staff member he spoke to confirmed that two contracts had been taken out in his name, and that it was “a white guy” who’d produced an ID document in his (Govender’s) name.
“I have been a loyal MTN customer for over a decade,” he said. “When I go into a store to renew my cellphone contract, I need to provide my original ID document, salary slip, proof of residence, driver’s licence and more.
“They go as far comparing my ID with what they have in their records.
“So how do the fraudsters manage to come up with all that? And how is it possible for a white guy to walk into a store, using a very Indian name such as Kubendran Govender, and not raise any suspicion from the staff?
“I had to rush to the police station to get an affidavit to prove that someone at MTN was not doing their job properly.”
On October 5, before I took up the case with MTN, Govender got a call from that KZN-town MTN staff member, telling him that the case had been resolved.
I queried the case with MTN anyway, focusing on the issue of the security checks which stores are required to do in order to prevent ID fraud.
Responding, MTN began with a profuse apology to Govender, for the inconvenience caused to him.
“MTN has noticed a few concerning incidents of upgrade fraud and is working with the authorities to clamp down on these illegal activities.
“We will be liaising with (Govender) and the police in this regard. MTN is working tirelessly to tighten its internal controls in order to minimise the recurrence of such incidents.”
At the bottom of the media response was an email from the MTN store employee who’d liaised with Govender, to MTN head office.
The employee described how an “African male” – as opposed to the “white guy” story Govender was given – had come into the store and asked him to Rica four sim cards.
When he (the employee) asked for his ID and proof of residence, he was asked to use “the documents of another customer”.
When he refused, he said, the man told him that he was doing upgrades and “and that he was working with some people at MTN who gave him information”.
The employee claimed that he initially refused, and was then threatened in the “I know where you live and I know your family” kind of way, and offered R3000 if he co-operated.
Being frightened for the lives of his family, he said, he did as he was told.
The fraudsters later emailed him ID copies “with XDS (a credit bureau) questions”, and he then added the sims for two additional lines on Govender’s account and handed over a phone, he said.
(The XDS verification process asks the customer to complete a few questions on their credit bureau information.)
“Unfortunately they now keep sending me more IDs as they are wanting more phones,” the employee said.
This is what legitimate subscribers are up against.
MTN said both “lines” in question had been deactivated and marked as fraudulent.
CONTACT: Email: consumer@knowler.co.za
Twitter: @wendyknowler
Cellphone account not immune from fraudsters
It will no doubt surprise and anger legitimate subscribers – who are made to jump through several red tape hoops when applying for a contract – to discover that fraudsters have ways and means of bucking the system to obtain a contract, and a phone, in a stranger’s name.
In the space of less than two days last week, I received complaints about three fraudulent cellphone contracts with three different networks.
Kuben Govender’s is by far the most intriguing, and revealing, of the three cases. An existing MTN contract subscriber, he acquired two new cellphone contracts in his name on September 29 at an MTN outlet in a KwaZulu-Natal town. (Why I’m not naming it will be revealed later.)
When he protested to MTN’s customer care line he hadn’t made the applications, he was told to produce a copy of his ID and an affidavit stating he’d been the victim of identity fraud – the standard corporate response to a consumer’s “it wasn’t me” complaint.
Meanwhile, Govender sourced the KZN store’s contact details and made a call. The staff member he spoke to confirmed that two contracts had been taken out in his name, and that it was “a white guy” who’d produced an ID document in his (Govender’s) name.
“I have been a loyal MTN customer for over a decade,” he said. “When I go into a store to renew my cellphone contract, I need to provide my original ID document, salary slip, proof of residence, driver’s licence and more.
“They go as far comparing my ID with what they have in their records.
“So how do the fraudsters manage to come up with all that? And how is it possible for a white guy to walk into a store, using a very Indian name such as Kubendran Govender, and not raise any suspicion from the staff?
“I had to rush to the police station to get an affidavit to prove that someone at MTN was not doing their job properly.”
On October 5, before I took up the case with MTN, Govender got a call from that KZN-town MTN staff member, telling him that the case had been resolved.
I queried the case with MTN anyway, focusing on the issue of the security checks which stores are required to do in order to prevent ID fraud.
Responding, MTN began with a profuse apology to Govender, for the inconvenience caused to him.
“MTN has noticed a few concerning incidents of upgrade fraud and is working with the authorities to clamp down on these illegal activities.
“We will be liaising with (Govender) and the police in this regard. MTN is working tirelessly to tighten its internal controls in order to minimise the recurrence of such incidents.”
At the bottom of the media response was an email from the MTN store employee who’d liaised with Govender, to MTN head office.
The employee described how an “African male” – as opposed to the “white guy” story Govender was given – had come into the store and asked him to Rica four sim cards.
When he (the employee) asked for his ID and proof of residence, he was asked to use “the documents of another customer”.
When he refused, he said, the man told him that he was doing upgrades and “and that he was working with some people at MTN who gave him information”.
The employee claimed that he initially refused, and was then threatened in the “I know where you live and I know your family” kind of way, and offered R3000 if he co-operated.
Being frightened for the lives of his family, he said, he did as he was told.
The fraudsters later emailed him ID copies “with XDS (a credit bureau) questions”, and he then added the sims for two additional lines on Govender’s account and handed over a phone, he said.
(The XDS verification process asks the customer to complete a few questions on their credit bureau information.)
“Unfortunately they now keep sending me more IDs as they are wanting more phones,” the employee said.
This is what legitimate subscribers are up against.
MTN said both “lines” in question had been deactivated and marked as fraudulent.
CONTACT: Email: consumer@knowler.co.za
Twitter: @wendyknowler
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