Massive Vodacom data bill in the last 2 weeks

T

tniland

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Hi all

I'm hoping someone can help me. A friend of mine received a massive bill (R18,000) for data usage on his Vodacom 3G account for the last 2 weeks:

- R7,000 - 25/06 to 30/06
- R11,000 - 01/07 to 07/07

I'm pretty sure that this can't be as a result of him choosing to download anything:

1) He doesn't use his 3G for anything but email and random browsing.
2) Not very computer-literate and definitely doesn't download music or video.
3) His average bill for the months preceeding the sudden increase was around R400/month.

He's asked me to help as I know a little about these types of things and he doesn't know where to start, so:

- Could this be caused by a virus downloading things to his notebook?
- Is it possible to trace what was downloaded or what sites were visited?
- Has something like this ever happened on Vodacom's network before (I think I remember something similar on MTN a while back)?

Thanks for all your help.

TN
 
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tniland said:
1) He doesn't use his 3G for anything but email and random browsing.
2) Not very computer-illiterate and definitely doesn't download music or video.
3) His average bill for the months preceeding the sudden increase was around R400/month.
Click to expand...

One question - does he have a firewall on his PC together with a decent antivirus?

It might be that his PC got infected with a nasty trojan/spambot which's chomping up bandwidth.

And yes, it happened before - infestation with a trojan/spambot which chomped up bandwidth.
 
I really do hope he is not connected to the 3G network at present - best that he disconnect ASAP until the problem is fixed - otherwise he'll face another steep bill.
 
Hi

Pm me his 3G number so I can do an analysis and see where the upload or download is happening

Regards
VodacomData
 
Yup he requested a temporary disconnection / soft block from Vodacom until the issue is resolved.

Looks like he is using standard Windows Firewall on XP and AVG Free Anti-virus but definitions are out of date.

Not much protection is it?
 
tniland said:
Yup he requested a temporary disconnection / soft block from Vodacom until the issue is resolved.

Looks like he is using standard Windows Firewall on XP and AVG Free Anti-virus but definitions are out of date.

Not much protection is it?
Click to expand...

No not much at all.
 
Ok I understand now but I doubt he is involved with any torrent uploads / downloads unless a virus is responsible or someone else is using his machine to do it.

I doubt it's the second as his office is him plus one assistant, he wouldn't have a clue how to download anything and he doesn't have any children that could be doing it! :)
 
Hi tniland

I sent you a PM with regards to data usage.

Regards
VodacomData
 
Windows service pack 3 cost me R7000 odd rand a while back, seems that the download failed close to the end and it retried continually until vodacom locked my account.

Needless to say, i now don't use the "install updates/cost you R7000 automatically anymore".

Might be somthing to check into.
 
The real question you should ask is why wasn't his CREDIT LIMIT hit? (resulting in his account being suspended) Standard limit is no more than R2,000 or so...there should be no way [if the system is working] to hit R11,000 from a standard R400 p/m contract without some kind of "intervention" occuring. Even the BANK will phone you if something like this happens...

I always read of people hitting these massive bills, but my MTN account has been suspended numerous times for hitting relatively small numbers like R2,000 or R3,000 (and it's a real schlep to get up and running again, but definitely a blessing in disguise i guess). So i don't know why it's even possible unless Vodacom is no longer using credit checks and limits...
 
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