Fraud leaves innocent man battling $10k Vodafone bill
A Wellington man has had to clear himself of a $10,000 non-existent debt after being hit by identity fraud.
Jaz Hamilton was forced to “jump through hoops” to prove he didn’t rack up the huge bill with Vodafone, even though the company did not actually incur a loss.
Vodafone has apologised for the mistake, saying the account should have been closed after the fraud was detected, but “human error” meant the step was not completed.
Hamilton’s wallet was stolen when he was at the gym in November 2015.
He immediately cancelled his cards and driver’s licence, but a year later he found out the thief had set up a Vodafone account in his name and racked up debt of $10,653.91.
He knew something was up when emails from a debt collection company began appearing in his personal inbox.
“At first they looked suspicious as,” he said. looked phishing.”
But eventually Hamilton decided to call Vodafone — who he has never been a customer with — and check if there was an account in his name.
It turned out the fraudster had tried to order many items from the company, but the fraud was detected and the items returned to Vodafone.
The company did not suffer a loss, but the bill remained in place and was passed on to the debt collectors.
“I’ve been running around trying to clear my name for a debt that essentially Vodafone was able to detect before I knew about anything.”
Hamilton had to send through paperwork and take time off work to visit a justice of the peace before he could clear the debt, which he finally managed to do last week.
He has also had to fix his pre- “It like viously healthy credit score, which had been “nailed” by the fraud. “It absolutely plummeted,” he said. “You’re essentially guilty until proven innocent. You have to do all the spade work to say ‘no, no, somebody grabbed my wallet, somebody racked all this up against me’.”
A Vodafone spokeswoman said an account was opened in Hamilton’s name in January last year.
“Upon dispatch of the devices, an experienced courier delivery person made a professional judgment call to double-check details of the delivery,” she said.
“The courier company’s head office then contacted Vodafone. After an investigation into the account, a call was made to put a stop to the delivery of the devices.
“It is very unfortunate that — due to a human error . . . the account was mistakenly left active.”
Vodafone apologised for the error and confirmed the debt had been expunged from Hamilton’s record. Be cautious with personal information on social networking sites. If possible, remove your date of birth and address from your page. Selling your phone? Do a factory reset to remove your personal data first. Think you’ve been the victim of a scam? Contact your bank and put a stop on your credit card, tell local police, and change the passwords and PIN numbers on your bank accounts. Buying online? Make sure the site address starts with ‘https’. This means the website is secure, protecting your credit card details. Lost or stolen device? Change all your passwords of the apps that have auto-logins, for example Facebook, Twitter, email.