Vodacom subscribers are advised to closely inspect their monthly cell phone bill to ensure they are not victims of an upgrade scam.<\/p>\n
The scam is simple \u2013 the criminals upgrade a Vodacom contract customer\u2019s account without their permission and \u201csteal\u201d the new smartphone associated with this upgrade.<\/p>\n
The criminals get away with a new high-end smartphone while the unsuspecting victim is left with an upgrade fee and\/or much higher monthly fees.<\/p>\n
Rapport reported<\/strong><\/a> that recent court papers shed light in this scam, with Vodacom admitting that it has a problem with this type of fraud on its network.<\/p>\n Vodacom, however, added that it is doing everything in its power to fight this crime and ensure its clients are not inconvenienced.<\/p>\n While the recent legal battle between Vodacom and a Polokwane businessman shed light on this upgrade scam, this fraud is nothing new.<\/p>\n There are reports of the fraudulent upgrade problem<\/strong><\/a> by other Vodacom subscribers stretching back many years.<\/p>\n One subscriber said on Vodacom\u2019s forum that his \u201ccontract was fraudulently upgraded\u201d from a Flexi 75 to a uChoose Flexi 200 on 12 February 2017. The upgrade included a new iPhone.<\/p>\n \u201cThe above came to attention when I received the debit order on 29 April 2017 for the amount of R600 instead of the usual R75,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI did not upgrade my account. I did not give anyone permission to upgrade my account and this has been done fraudulently.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe same has happened to me. I have had a new contract taken out under my name,\u201d another Vodacom subscriber said.<\/p>\n \u201cTried calling the customer care and no luck. I have sent an email to fraud disputes, received a reference number, but no feedback or telephone call at all.\u201d<\/p>\n A Vodacom spokesperson told MyBroadband that this is an \u201cunfortunate case of identity fraud\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a company that cares for the protection of our customers, we urge all Vodacom customers to protect their personal information at all costs,\u201d Vodacom said.<\/p>\n The company added that criminals are working around the clock in search of personal information.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are constantly and deliberately looking out for banking details, cellphone numbers and any personal information allows them to conduct crime.\u201d<\/p>\n A scam targeting Vodacom subscribers can cost unsuspecting victims thousands in additional monthly fees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":232631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[35,1271,52259,41],"class_list":["post-317449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-headline","tag-scam","tag-upgrade","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317449"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317681,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317449\/revisions\/317681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ongoing scam<\/h3>\n
Vodacom responds<\/h3>\n
Now read: Why I left Telkom for Vodacom<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"