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Fin24 users have come forward with their tales of having fallen prey to double contract fraud.
Fin24's sister publication The Witness this week reported about a customer who said that MTN at first “refused to cancel his cellphone contract claiming that he must first pay up for two mystery accounts that had been opened in his name”.
READ: Customer tussles with MTN over fraudulent contracts
Gerhard Lombaard said his 24-month MTN cellphone contract had expired in January but when he called the company to cancel the contract he was informed about the two additional accounts in his name, The Witness reported.
After a reported struggle, MTN said that it eventually deactivated the lines that had been fraudulently opened in Lombaard’s name.
“The customer will be reimbursed all the amounts that have been debited from their accounts, and further debits on this account have since been cancelled. MTN apologises to the customer for any inconvenience caused,” said an MTN spokesperson.
In the meantime, other Fin24 users have come forward with similar experiences.
Fin24 user Sheila wrote:
“I've been a victim twice in a space of three months and the second fraudulent case is still open for more than a month now. They can't tell the progress of this case and they've been deducting from my account and each time I need to reverse that amount. All these fraudulent upgrades were done in KZN too. MTN is doing nothing about these fraud cases or change processes because it happened to me twice now already. I'm awaiting feedback from them but I’ve just put a stopped payment on that MTN debit order. This is unacceptable really. Ive gone through the proper channels but nothing still. Thanks Fin24 for giving us a voice.”
Fin24 Samir wrote:
"My wife (Shameemah) had an issue with her network on her phone at the beginning of this week. It was switching on and off, but mostly was off and she had no data signal. It went on again on briefly early afternoon on 15th March, so I told her to call MTN via the help line and find out what the problem was. She subsequently found out that someone had done an upgrade on her contract on that very day (15 March). The call centre operator had told her to get an affidavit and send it along with a copy of her ID to him.
A bit of history is that her bag was stolen in Canal Walk last year September (her ID was in it as well). We upgraded her MTN contract in September 2015, therefore she was not due an upgrade at all. She does not work, and only has 1 MTN contract.
We will be sending the affidavit by the end of this week and will await MTN’s response. I fail to see how they could make any changes on her current number without doing proper checks etc. While I know that ID fraud is increasing, it still does not explain how MTN could allow a change to her current fairly new (6 months) contract.
I am very glad to have seen this news post and the fact that this has just happened to us, might be a blessing having the support of the media. We could perhaps hold MTN accountable in a more public way.”
Fin24 user Terry wrote:
“I have also had my contract renewed, apparently in Westville. Whoever did it now have an S6 phone that I am paying for. I originally had a data package. I went to my local MTN shop in Richmond, they advised me to send an affidavit to the fraud department, which I did. I have had no contact from this department, onto the progress, there is also no number to phone
It is rather frustrating. I reversed the debt order last month and if it goes off again I will do the same.”
Fin24 users Farzana wrote:
“I had a similar problem in August last year. My two lines were fraudulently upgraded and this was done on a business name. According to MTN rules any changes are to be done with permission on a business letterhead and an ID of the director. Therefore I can't understand how this was done. My lines were not only upgraded but new handsets were billed to my account. It took MTN 3 months to rectify this despite the fact I handed in all the necessary documentation the next day. I also had to pay the enormous bill so as not to have my lines disconnected due to non payment. In addition I called them numerous times to check on the progress. MTN finally resolved the matter but refused to explain to me how this fraud was conducted despite the fact that I was greatly inconvenienced.”
Fin24 user Florence wrote:
“I have a similar problem. After querying last month I was told to submit the affidavit with ID copy of which I did and when I went to the branch (Northgate) I was told the paper work has been submitted and they are busy processing. I asked where the contracts were opened and by who they can't tell me who opened them just they were opened in KZN in December while I reside in joburg. This month I was debited again and went to the bank to reverse the money. Mtn does not keep contact with its clients queries we always have to call or go to useless branches.”
Disclaimer: All letters and comments published in Fin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
