ID numbers stolen, used for fraud

POLOKWANE – An alert, quick-thinking sales consultant at Vodacom Chatz Connect at Mall of the North prevented two cell phone contracts from being upgraded by a man who allegedly stole the identity number of  a resident named Rudi Pretorius.

On May 4, the man visited the Vodacom outlet wanting to do an upgrade on two contracts. He wanted the latest Samsung Galaxy S6. For security reasons the sales consultant had to verify certain information on the system with that which the client supplied before the upgrade could be done.
While doing the verification process the sales consultant noted that the ID copy of the client they had on their system did not match the ID copy the client had provided.
Administration manager at Vodacom Chatz Connect, Mall of the North, Gwen Mkhari, said the ID number was the same, but the photos were not identical.
“The sales consultant told his manager and we immediately called Rudi Pretorius to tell him about these transactions, but both the numbers registered with us were off.
“To stall the process without causing any suspicion we told the client we were out of stock and that he had to return within a week,” Makhari said.
Last Tuesday the man called the store to follow up on his contract upgrade and this time management was able to contact Rudi and explain what was going on.
Rudi immediately went to the Vodacom outlet and he was advised to block his ID number at the transunion credit bureau.
His wife, Tarien, said her husband had blocked his ID number. “During this process we found out that the man had opened two clothing accounts on my husband’s name. One of the accounts was declined, and the other was approved. He shopped to the value of R3 800 on the account. We opened a case of fraud at the police station.”
WO Lesiba Ramoshaba, Polokwane police spokesperson, confirmed they were investigating a case of fraud and no arrests had been made yet.
“We have received cases like this in the past, but mostly it is when people lose their ID’s. However, this case is more puzzling because the victim said he had not lost his ID. Our investigation is ongoing,” Ramoshaba said.
Tarien added that friends of her’s, Alfrieda and Dawie Lessing, were also victims of a similar scam last May. Alfrieda said her husband’s ID number was also stolen by a man who looked similar to the man that stole Rudi’s ID number.
“I only found out about the matter when I wanted to close some of our cell phone contracts. When I called Vodacom to cancel the contracts they said an upgrade had been made on one of the contracts. The upgrade was from a R149 contract to a R900 contract. The transaction was done in Johannesburg, but we immediately reported the matter to the Polokwane police and a fraud case was opened.
“My husband had to block his ID number and we then found out that there were two clothing accounts opened on my husband’s name as well and that several purchases were made on both accounts to the estimated value of R8 000. After we opened a criminal case at the police station, everything was reversed,” Alfrieda said.
Alfrieda added that the man was never caught and that the police were still investigating the matter.
Marilize Labuschagne was also the victim of a similar scam. In July last year a woman used her ID number to open two Vodacom contracts in her name.
“The transaction took place in Cape Town. This woman not only used my ID number, but also my banking details, because a debit order of R2 000 went off on my account for these contracts.
“At the time I didn’t think anything about the matter. I thought it was just a mistake and had the transaction reversed at the bank. I only found out about the scam when I received an account from Vodacom in August/September. I had never received an account before this one. When I reported the matter to the police I found that no payments were made on the account and I was blacklisted,” Labuschagne said.
She added that no one was arrested in her case, and that police investigations were also still ongoing.

Saved by the bank – Mall of the North