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 SCAM ALERT: Contact your cellphone company's call centre should you receive an SMS notifying you of a SIM Swap you did not request 

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When Elias Mokoane of Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, recently noticed the words "Sim Swap" on his cellphone screen he should immediately have called his service provider

"It was on a Friday evening that I noticed the screen. I was tired and switched my cellphone off and slept. When I woke up and turned on the phone it still had the same message on the screen," Mokoane said. "I also had several missed calls but discovered that it was from strangers."

He called Vodacom.

Luckily for Mokoane all this was as a result of a technical mistake on Vodacom's side and was rectified.

He could have been a victim of a scam doing the rounds - which involves criminals sending authentic-looking SMSes, easily mistakable for the kind a bank would send.

The SMS will indicate a problem on your bank account and it would then assure you that a "consultant" would contact the prospective victim.

When the "consultant" subsequently makes contact, he or she would start confirming all of the victim's details, including banking account numbers, as well as the victim's kind of cellphone.

The fraudsters would then contact the victim's cellphone service provider and perform a SIM swap, which would enable them to receive One Time Pins and Random Verification Numbers from the victim's banking institution, and have access to the victim's bank accounts.

Vodacom spokesman Richard Boorman urged customers to contact their call centre should they receive an SMS notifying them of a SIM Swap they did not request.

Comments

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Tue May 21 00:32:31 SAST 2013 ::

Nov 18, 2011

DjEp

Mzantsi wake up, the thugs are also business minded, they look and maximise any opportunity they will get.
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Nov 18, 2011

sarmologadi

yahhh neh mzansi tsotsis, i got a bill of R5900 last month frm my vodacom acnt, which was incurred in 1day...it is scary, be vigilant at al tyms...
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Nov 18, 2011

JoseMonna

@kolobe ijoo weeeeeeeeeeeee,watch out don't say that on the national newspaper tltltltltltltlttltl.....
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Nov 18, 2011

Eraser

@kolobe
hehehehe i feel you..vele

Mzansi has gone crazy..scams everywhere...
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Nov 18, 2011

Mpotjekegobotje

JUST BRING BACK THE TELEGRAMS AND THE LETTER WRITING!!!...This whole technology thing is getting out of hand!
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Nov 18, 2011

edna

I so feel you Kolobe 200%. In PTA Central they sell them like sweets. Anyway most of them are not only selling sweets in those corners. NC NC NC.....its sad hey!

Thugs are very intelligent. They never run out of ideas.
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Nov 18, 2011

Pointman

Scammers exploit our weaknesses. They count on us not acting when we find something suspicious. Just don't read the SMS superficially- if it is suspicious then look into it some more.

@kolobe - we are corrupt and incompetent which is why criminals flourish here. Most drug traders and users are South African.
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Nov 18, 2011

LBS

Banks will NEVER send sms's asking for information - the only time they will contact you is if you are doing a transaction and it is an alert so that if someone else if fiddling with your account you can get it stopped immediately!

If you haven't entered a competition but get told you've won - ignore it - it is another scam.
I have 'won' MILLIONS of $ according to regular emails and sms's - sadly not true!!
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Nov 18, 2011

Socrates

Gee this is scary, who the to trust? its when you are having stupid persons like Zuma and ANC leading your country
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Nov 18, 2011

JUBJUB

Crooks are everywhere we just have to be carefull
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