Cell phone number porting ****

I have had my number for over 20 years, moved to the UK in 2015 and still kept the account active. My SA phone stopped working and I battled to find a phone in the UK which would take a larger sim. My daughter brought over a suitable phone from SA in January but my sim would still not work. I put some airtime in and sent an email to Vodacom in February to confirm that I still wanted to keep the number. I never received a response from Vodacom and in June this year starting receiving dodgey friend requests on Face Book. I blocked the numbers and was blocked from my Face Book account, my name and profile picture was changed and I could only change this after 60 days according to Face Book 60 days have passed and I have managed to revert back to my original profile. I have now recently been blocked from my Whatsapp account which is of particular concern as someone else has my contacts but I do not. I had a friend go to Vodacom in SA with the required permissions to make enquiries on my account and was told that I must just change my phone number on my social media accounts as my number had been recycled.

Well this person has access to my contacts as I have seen a message sent to my partner in the UK and messages to my friends in SA who did not realise that my phone number has been taken over. I can not even close down my account as I have no mobile access to my SA number although I have the original sim.

I would want to keep the number, but if not possible, I want to close it down completely. I believe that the number has now been hacked which is proving to be a security issue, not just for myself but all my contacts. This will need to be sorted out as soon as possible as it is a POPI/GDPR isssue and if any of my contacts or my information is compromised from this, I will take this further.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Jill