SIM card cloned?

[JohnJuniorV3]

Hi guys,

This is for a friend.

About two weeks ago she had her phone swapped for a new one (iPhone X) at the iStore as she had a permanent green line down the side of her screen. Before, she wiped her phone and removed the sim card, however, since her phone was taken in and swapped she has random phone calls on her phone and her minutes are being used regularly.

I am a bit confused about the situation and have checked her iCloud to if any other devices are on it unaware to her and everything is in check.

The only thing I can think of is that somehow her sim card has been cloned? But then I don't understand how it can appear on her phone.

Vodacom fraud have been pretty useless and told us that it's a physical problem that needs to be solved at a Vodacom shop.

Maybe if someone can provide some data on these numbers that are being dialled too?... I have quite a lot of screenshots from her with various numbers.

 

[JohnJuniorV3]

Some more screen shots:

 

[WireFree]

Possible malware?

Some things to try:
1) Put a different SIM in the phone. Do you these calls stop or do they still take place?
2) Are these calls also present on the itemised bill? You can check recent calls on the Vodacom portal.
3) If you disable mobile data and wifi, do you still see the outgoing calls?

 

[JohnJuniorV3]

Possible malware?

Some things to try:
1) Put a different SIM in the phone. Do you these calls stop or do they still take place?
2) Are these calls also present on the itemised bill? You can check recent calls on the Vodacom portal.
3) If you disable mobile data and wifi, do you still see the outgoing calls?

So basically even if the phone is off the calls were still registering and it does show up on itemised billing.

I eventually got hold of someone at the fraud department who was ACTUALLY useful and they have determined that there is internal fraud within their system. Apparently they will monitor it over the next week and take it from there.

Hopefully something will be resolved soon, but in the mean time the calls still keep taking place.

 

[cavedog]

First of all how will those calls register on the devices history? Possible malware so put the simcard in another phone and see if it still does it.

Highly unlikely that the simcard is cloned. If so then call 135 and stop the simcard and do a sim swap at the store.

I can see the call history showing up on your phone if the simcard is cloned and simcard cloning is not even possible as far as I know. They can get additional simcards linked to one contract but each sim has their own sim number and is listed as such on your contract so you can basically cancel and block all of them if any.

As for the phone factory reset should solve any malware unless it's somewhere on the ios software itself which is unlikely but I'm not familiar with that.

 

[GIGZ]

So basically even if the phone is off the calls were still registering and it does show up on itemised billing.

I eventually got hold of someone at the fraud department who was ACTUALLY useful and they have determined that there is internal fraud within their system. Apparently they will monitor it over the next week and take it from there.

Hopefully something will be resolved soon, but in the mean time the calls still keep taking place.

Update?

 

[VC-1]

Hi guys,

This is for a friend.

About two weeks ago she had her phone swapped for a new one (iPhone X) at the iStore as she had a permanent green line down the side of her screen. Before, she wiped her phone and removed the sim card, however, since her phone was taken in and swapped she has random phone calls on her phone and her minutes are being used regularly.

I am a bit confused about the situation and have checked her iCloud to if any other devices are on it unaware to her and everything is in check.

The only thing I can think of is that somehow her sim card has been cloned? But then I don't understand how it can appear on her phone.

Vodacom fraud have been pretty useless and told us that it's a physical problem that needs to be solved at a Vodacom shop.

Maybe if someone can provide some data on these numbers that are being dialled too?... I have quite a lot of screenshots from her with various numbers.


View attachment 535803

@oliverwww - May we suggest a method to resolve the problem and stop any speculative answers please?
1) Your friend should compose a carefully constructed email message wherein the issue is clearly described/explained in chronological order of events, sending to [email protected] ensuring she obtains a Service Reference Number.
2) Allow for 7 days for a response, in the event of an unacceptable response then forward your original message to [email protected] ensuring that your Service Reference Number is the first word of the subject in that email to the ceo.
This is the only method of receiving an acceptable resolution to her problem.

 

[ArmatageShanks]

Why not turn the phone of so Sim A is not active then call the her number and see if Sim B rings?

 

[JohnJuniorV3]

Update?

@oliverwww - May we suggest a method to resolve the problem and stop any speculative answers please?
1) Your friend should compose a carefully constructed email message wherein the issue is clearly described/explained in chronological order of events, sending to [email protected] ensuring she obtains a Service Reference Number.
2) Allow for 7 days for a response, in the event of an unacceptable response then forward your original message to [email protected] ensuring that your Service Reference Number is the first word of the subject in that email to the ceo.
This is the only method of receiving an acceptable resolution to her problem.

Sorry for not communicating an update. The problem is still ongoing. We have completed a sim swap, changed phones, factory reset.... etc etc. Basically done all that we can from this side. Vodacom are still investigating the problem, they say they have not seen fraud like this before, which I find kind of surprising. Unfortunately my friend has to make use of her phone for business etc and cannot afford to cancel the contract or use a different number (which wouldn't help). According to her Vodacom have not been very useful and she is considering legal action as she is being charged outrageous amounts for something she has no control of. I will phone her today to get an update and add to the above.

Oliver

 

[calypso]

Cant say I have the answer here, but when a SIM its cloned, its actually just a sim swop which is out of our control and the original SIM is turned off. You cant have 2 SIM running of the same MSISDN.

If you cant, ask the network for a copy the CDR's with the IMEI and IMSI for each transaction, will give you more clues.

When the sim was put into another phone and you said the transactions till took place, do they also show in the call history?

 

[GIGZ]

Sorry for not communicating an update. The problem is still ongoing. We have completed a sim swap, changed phones, factory reset.... etc etc. Basically done all that we can from this side. Vodacom are still investigating the problem, they say they have not seen fraud like this before, which I find kind of surprising. Unfortunately my friend has to make use of her phone for business etc and cannot afford to cancel the contract or use a different number (which wouldn't help). According to her Vodacom have not been very useful and she is considering legal action as she is being charged outrageous amounts for something she has no control of. I will phone her today to get an update and add to the above.

Oliver

Oh Boy, that's not good at all.
Opening a case with the SAPS would show the network provider that she means business, the trick would be getting compensated and knowing how much to be compensated since everything comes up in the itemized billing.

 

[JohnJuniorV3]

So I have spoken to my friend again and she has told me that Vodacom closed the case 2 weeks ago without notifying her. She then spoke to someone at a local shop who tried to escalate the issue with no resolve. She said that she is going to push the issue this week, otherwise she is going to try close the account and get a lawyer involved.

 

[GIGZ]

So I have spoken to my friend again and she has told me that Vodacom closed the case 2 weeks ago without notifying her. She then spoke to someone at a local shop who tried to escalate the issue with no resolve. She said that she is going to push the issue this week, otherwise she is going to try close the account and get a lawyer involved.

No surprises there.

She might also want Apple involved, so that they can absolve themselves should VC pull the "it's not us, it's Apple" card