Oh well it looks as if the consumer is sill the one who gets nailed in the end. I don't think we will ever have enough protection. The average guy on the street only knows about anti virus's and some know about anti Malware. In the end the consumer is screwed.
I don't think my friend was negligent in any way (except maybe for not disconnecting his 3G card). He protected his PC as well or if not better than most.
I think this is the problem Vodacom is now faced with - due to lower data pricing, huge advertising campaigns, affordable laptop bundles, coverage in areas which to this day, only have snail-pace Telkom dial-ups, they have made high speed internet connections accessible to virtually everyone. This was/is Alan Knott-Craig's vision for data after all... a very noble idea in my opinion. Putting this into practice is where it gets tricky!
The problem is that 99% of these people are not I.T. boffins, they are lucky if they know that they need an antivirus - even though the forms they sign state this. Never mind about anti spyware/malware, firewalls, automatic updates, netmonitors, etc. Some members on this forum have even been caught with high bills, and they know the risks!
A R10 000 bill is not unique, I currently have 2 clients with the same problem. The one client was brand new, took the line for his son at varsity in pretoria, so knowing about the gaming/streaming habits of students, we put a financial limit lock of R100 (in excess of his bundle) on that line in addition to the automatic Vodacom R1500 lock, which is mandatory on all new lines for the first 3 months. The result is a huge R12000 bill!! Aside from blame, who must carry the cost? Vodacom's billing is not "live", which is why neither limit locks protected him. How can even a virus use that much in 3 hours - which is the delay noted on the balance enquiry screen - after which surely the limit locks would have/should have kicked in?
The worst part is that unlike voice, Vodacom cannot say this is the number you dialled and the duration of the call. They can't give any indication of what website ate up all the data!
I think Vodacom need to re-look at this system, and perhaps put in place a system where you choose an OOB limit, Say R200, after which you are locked and have to call/go to a Vodashop/access vodacom4me, to add another bundle.
The alternative is that yes, a court may order these clients to pay the huge bill, but will they ever use Vodacom HSDPA (or any other Vodacom service) again?
When I went over my bundle i received an sms on my laptop warning me that I had gone over! Lesson learned!!
