Has white collar crime found a security hole in the cellphone industry?

[Dave A]

Aha!

It has been a most informative morning. It's going to take a little while for me to knock together a post that covers what has happened, but briefly:
It involves overbilling from a WASP
Vodacom is aware of it
And Vodacom has been trying to correct it - which is the reason for the hijinks on my account I've been seeing.

I'll try to do something more comprehensive later (in fact, an official news release from Vodacom would be most useful - I'm having to rely on notes from a couple of conversations).

But in the meantime, may I express my thanks to Nazeer of Vodacom customer care and Nicky (sp?) of Vodacom accounts. You were both truly helpful.

[OnlineMarketing]

What I am saying you can't quote someone R100 for a job then charge him R150 without negotiating this with the customer, that in my book is not ethical

Agreed Ian

Glad you made progress Dave, i still agree that the big boys often do business like Bernie Madoff but in this instance it seems there is an explanation

[Dave A]

I said earlier my thoughts on this being fraud were speculative.

Through a couple of discussions with Vodacom representatives today, I am advised that certain irregularities in the raising of WASP charges for August 2010 had come to the attention of Vodacom. Essentially this resulted in some clients being overbilled and requiring credits to be passed to correct this overbilling.

These credits were passed on or about 4th December 2010. However there was a glitch and the values passed were not what they should have been. So to clear this they reversed the December run on or about 17th January and there has been another run of credits passed on or about 4th February.

As I say, this was what I gleaned from conversations as the rough gist of what had actually happened.

Good on you Vodacom, but I'm still a little shaken by what all this implies.

So one or more WASP operators was found "overbilling" in August 2010.
And as one of the "overbilled" clients getting a credit, that means I didn't even notice.

Yep, my speculation was a little off the mark - by just how much I leave you to decide.
Maybe the verdict depends on your view of "overbilling" - by the sounds of things there was quite a lot of it.

At least it seems Vodacom is prepared to do something about it

[Fanie]

The bottom line is Vodacom doesn't care. I was semi involved in a crime taking place in JHB where the police (for what that's worth) could have tracked the criminal and cought him in the act. Vodacom refused on the grounds that they have to protect the individual's right. (Criminals have rights, victims doesn't in SA).

BUT IF YOU PAY then you can rape your children's privacy and know exactly where they are any time you want.

I got ripped by Vodacom recently when using international roaming - less than a few mins cost me more than R180, I calculated around R30 per minute after being told it cost R6 per minute, this was from Mozabique. I bought a local card there for 100 metica (R20) and talked longer to SA than the R180 did.

Vodacom (MTN) was found to be 7 times more expensive than need be by an independant survey. The gov doesn't care, the more they get...

Why aren't phone companies just phone companies - now they are into rugby and gawd knows what all instead of just being the best they can be at what they do.

Money - and maintaining your monopoly.
In SA you are considered a good business person if you manage to screw someone.

[Cat]

What an interesting read indeed. I wouldn't even know where to start....

@Fanie - it is sad in this situation that the criminal could not be tracked. As with anything in South Africa there is red tape and protocol and (being married to a crime intelligence officer) in certain circumstances service providers are legally obligated to comply with police request for information BUT the severity of the crime and type of information given will decide this. Please do not think that I am saying that some crimes are worse than others because crime is crime - however reality is that in many circumstances red tape hinders the process or delays it until perhaps it is too late.

@Dave A - As for Vodacom and other service providers, I am glad that the matter was resolved. I had a very similar experience with Nashua Mobile and cancelled my debit order to them and now pay on receipt of statement and invoice. Needless ot say they request monthly that I set up a new debit order but I would rather do it myself monthly than have to go through what added up to HOURS of calls and holding for call center agents. Ha ha now I think about it I was in a situation where the consultant asked me to hold but obviously didn't realize they hadn't physically put me on hold then proceeded to go one about these stupid clients.... blah blah fish paste..... and then cut me off when I commented on it.

It is common knowledge that South Africans are subjected to steep charges by service providers - in comparison to international standards. I know I have mentioned this in a few posts but I really do hope this consumer act proves its worth. My suspicion is that there will THAT MANY complaints that the 'consumer act' will have it's own complaints line and another stream of call centers, repetitive "hold" music and automated answering services. (if there isn't one already)

[Fanie]

Dave, if everyone in SA gives you only one cent, how much money will you have ?

I cannot expect any paybacks from the red bunch, my mobile phone cost me about R5 a month. The contract I cancelled some months ago I think was R230 pm, so I now save around R225 x 12 ~ R2700. Suits me.