Unprofessional and not protecting my personal information

Hi all,

I bought a Telkom simcard 3months ago that was already rica-d, I used it for WiFi only so I would purchase airtime and convert it into data bundles probably once in two months,

On Sunday the 24th July 2022 I purchased R360 airtime and converted into data bundles for 359zar, the simcard worked for about 2.5hours and it completely stopped working, fine. I contacted telkom the following day and I was informed that the simcard was deactivated as it was not rica-d under my name, what I need to do is to go to the nearest store with the same simcard, an affidavit and my ID and ask them to do a sim swap for me so that I can get the data.

I get to the store in Northgate and I was informed that is not possible instead they ricad a different number for me, fine. I didn’t really care about the mobile number all I needed was the data back or be reimbursed for it because although I bought a simcard that was already rica-d I still purchased data that I need, I mean why did they have to was for me to load so much data prior to de-activation? Doesn’t make sense.

I made peace with everything after the gentleman who tried his best to assist at the Northgate store informed me that I won’t get the data back,

The real problem starts here;

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from a 021 number from a “Sthabiso Hlongwe who claims he works for Telkom. This man had my ID number and wanted to confirm my full names. Which was weird that he called out my ID number yet I must tell him my names, I gave him incorrect names which he verified as correct(Red Flag 1) He said the reason for the call is because of the case that was logged by the contact center regarding the data that’s currently on the deactivated simcard, he wants to help me get it back or have Telkom paying the 360zar into my account since I did not get an opportunity to use my data, in order for him to do that he needs a bank statement showing the transaction when I was purchasing the airtime, I should email this to him,

He placed me on hold and sent me an sms with an email address ~ ***

I was so skeptical about this so I decided to go to the Telkom store again since I felt that the only time I gave my Personal details was when they were helping me rica the different number they gave me so definitely if this person that is requesting my banking details to reimburse my airtime he got my ID number from Telkom without a doubt because he had my full Identity number and I believe this was in breach of the POPI Act.

I get to the store yesterday and one of the ladies confirmed that this email address does not belong to any Telkom staff member so it became evident that this person was trying obtain my bank details.

This is so unfair guys think about it.

1. I understand that maybe Telkom has a right to deactivate any simcard that you bought and it was already ricad - question is why do you only do it after I have purchased 360zar data while I’ve had the simcard for this long and I used to buy low value data and the sim was never deactivated.

2. I’m being misinformed by the contact center to go and make an affidavit and go to the branch, asked them to do a simswap so I can have my data back.

3. I get to the branch they rica a different number for my and are unable to assist regarding the data.

4. The inconvenience of getting affidavits and wasting petrol to get to the branch only to get nothing in return.

5. I have only shared my details once with Telkom which is when I was registering the simcard, the following day I’m being vished for banking details by a *********, how did my ID number even get to this person the day after I gave it to Telkom?

6. The possibility of breaching the POPI Act.

Telkom number that was deactivated is *** My personal contact number is ***

I also emailed the Telkom ***** team yesterday after the call but no one got back to me

Can anyone please look into this and provide feedback as there could be a long way to go regarding the breach.