*****

Good day

Today on 06 Nov at 13:06 I received a call from *** informing me that he is phoning from MTN regarding a request for a sim swop on my number in Sunningdale. Establishing that it was not me, he said that in order to escalate this to internal forensics, he is going to send me a OTP which I need to give him. I received the first OTP from the same number that I receive all my login and OTP notifications. I asked him how will I know if he is from MTN and he said that this OTP is automatically computer generated from MTN and he will send me another sms to verify. And this did happen, so because it was received from the same system sms number, I gave it to him. Our call was dropped and I immediately phoned MTN SP and informed them of the situation. The consultant explained to me that it is a **** and referred me to another number. I phoned them only to be told that they don't deal with client queries, but only staff reporting ***** amongst employees. I phoned MTN SP again and then got a reference number.

I also went into the MTN store at Cape Gate to verify that my account is secure and I don't have to be concerned, but at this point I did not know that any changes were made to the two particular accounts. This consultant told me that it is generally ex / disgruntled employees who still have access to the system and usually it is only pay-as-you-go clients, but obviously now they are targeting contract clients.

Today two numbers linked to my contract had changes made to the account as sms's were received. Initially the credit limit was changed from R0.00 to R310 and then R200 was transferred from each account to *** and *** and leaving R110 balance. I phoned MTN SP today again at 18:55 at which point she told me again it is ***** and many systems get hacked ... insinuating that I got hacked in particular. I changed the limits again and verified all is in order with my account.

Firstly, I had no reason to question the call. The sms's received were from MTN, so my question in this regard is how is this not an internal MTN problem? If the communication was received from a valid MTN system number where I receive all my communication from?

Secondly, do you want to tell me that none of these numbers are now connected? Is RICA not compulsory for ALL cellphone numbers for them to be active on any network?

Lastly, can you confirm my account is secure and how do I know that this will not happen again?

Looking forward to your urgent response.