Always check your bank statements for unauthorised debits
This is one of the most alarming marketing SMS stories I've ever come across. Capetonian Heather Cooke, a Vodacom pre-paid customer, received the following SMS in late November: "Congrat's, Vodacom user y've won R30 Vodacom airtime. Reply YES to confirm & receive your Bonus R30 voucher @ R7.50, T&C's apply, dial *xx# to view or stop".
"Stupidly I replied YES and then forgot all about it," she said.
Then she got an SMS from her bank, FNB, alerting her to the fact that R151 had been deducted from her account, with the reference "Taxinfosergreengreen".
A company called, as Cooke put it, "Green Green or Imvelaphi Mobile" later told Heather that she had subscribed to a membership to buy electricity or airtime, and a debit order had been activated on her bank account.
"I had not signed any document agreeing to a debit order," she said. "The only thing I had done was SMS YES - does this give people authority to deduct money from my bank account which I had not given them details of?"
She demanded to know from the company how they got her bank details and was told that they "buy data" from major companies. The mind boggles. Clearly this is an illegal practice.
I took up the case with Vodacom, which investigated at length, and then suspended its agreement with Green-Green.
A spokesman said the company had contravened the Waspa code in several ways, including failing to inform Cooke of the R151 to be deducted from her bank account on responding YES to the SMS.
"Vodacom has lodged a complaint with Waspa, and we believe that Waspa is investigating."
As to how Green-Green got Cooke's banking details, Vodacom said the company had "confirmed in writing that Cooke's details were obtained from a customer database which they sourced through their call centre or customers who had used services provided by Green-Green over years".
Very, very scary. You have to give your written or verbal consent to a debit order being actioned on your bank account for it to be legally valid.
Of course, the banks don't have the capacity to check for the client holder's authority before processing a debit order. To those who still aren't in the habit of checking their bank statements regularly, you literally don't know what you're missing.
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