What’s in your purse could cost you
Times Media consumer writer Wendy Knowler writes a weekly column on issues affecting consumers. If you have something you would like her to investigate, send your queries to: consumer@knowler.co.za Follow her on Twitter: @wendyknowler
IF YOU lost your wallet or handbag, or had it stolen from you, would someone find enough information in there to steal your identity and open accounts in your name, or raid your bank account?
The trouble with recording your account numbers, PINs and passwords in places where you can easily access them when you need to, is that this information can easily land up in the wrong hands.
Pretoria student Blossom Khosa didn’t immediately link the R400 debit order activated on her bank account by Body Lab in April with the fact that she’d mislaid her purse earlier that month.
“When the debit order bounced I got an SMS threatening to take legal action against me,” she said.
“I tried to call a Body Lab branch to find out who authorised the deductions, but I couldn’t get any answers.”
Many people, including students, have claimed that they were lured into a branch with offers of free training or special offers, and duped into signing a three-year contract, having been told it would only come into effect if they wanted to join at a later stage.
Then come the letters of demand from debt collectors Bennett & Associates, which is an “affiliate” company of Body Lab. But Khoza said she’d never set foot in a Body Lab gym, much less signed anything.
She cancelled her bank card shortly after realising her purse was missing, but there was a lot of information in it which gave someone the ability to raid her bank account anyway: her bank debit card on which, she says, a bank employee had written her bank account number, as well as a contact card bearing her name, cellphone number and address
“I’m in a state of panic now about being blacklisted,” Khosa told In Your Corner.
“Please can you contact them for me before it’s too late . . . ”
I contacted Body Lab general manager Nico Grobler, who also represents Bennett & Associates, outlining Khosa’s experience and attaching an affidavit signed by her, confirming that she had not entered into the contract herself.
Grobler responded by saying that the contract had been opened and a debit order activated in April using Khoza’s personal and bank details.
As for how this was possible without Khosa’s ID, given that the presentation of an ID is a basic requirement when entering into any contract, he said: “Her ID may not have been in her purse, but other documentation containing the ID number may have been.” He confirmed that the fraudulent contract had been cancelled, which was a huge relief to Khosa.
I advised her to register her details with the SA Fraud Prevention Service in order to prevent whoever impersonated her at Body Lab from opening accounts in her name.
It’s a free service, which triggers an alert when someone presents their ID number and other personal details for a credit application. It means that you have to carry an alternative form of ID to prove you’re the real deal, but it’s worth the schlep. Call SAFPS on 0860-101-248.
SAFPS executive director Carol McLoughlin said the number of victims of impersonation reported to the organisation had dropped in the first four months of this year, compared to last year, for the first time.
But the 200 to 300 cases of ID fraud per month currently being reported were “just the tip of the iceberg” in terms of the actual occurrence, McLoughlin said.