The story of 3 Repairs completed on the same smartphone...a new device issued...And *****ulent activities less than 24 hours later of receiving the new device!

VODACOM REPAIRS CENTURION Jescom Technology (Pty) Ltd t/a Vodacom Repairs Centurion Shop 131A Centurion Lake Mall CNRHendrik Verwoed and Heuwel Centurion 46 Tel: *** E-mail: ***

Dear Vodacom Repairs Centurion

I reference Job Number ***1.

After a little over a year of purchasing a smartphone from the said retailer at the store listed above, I've brought in the device for a total of 4 times for repairs, from overheating, device not charging, motherboard malfunctions, etc.

On the 4th occasion of taking the device to Vodacom, the device was booked in again for the 4th time by said Vodacom store and sent to their 3rd-party service provider (Jescom) on 19 December 2023. Please note that you have to provide your phone screen pin at Vodacom for the repair with Jescom. I specifically requested a new phone, as I didn't want this faulty, broken device any longer, as per the warranty T's/C's when I purchased the device.

After a bit of back and forth during this time, (I visited the store when I could) between Vodacom Management and Jescom, the Vodacom Team fought for me to get a new device, which I am greatful for - a huge thank you to Given and Tishia! It was confirmed that the old device would be s****ped, to protect my personal info also, so happy me received a new device on 5 January 2024, the end, right? I wish...

At 1:11am on Saturday, 6 January 2024 only a few hours after unwrapping my belated Christmas present of a new smartphone, I noticed that I had received a request for an OTP pin for a large amount of money, followed up by a USSD (cellphone banking) pin requesting the same amount. I frantically check my bank account on my app and noted that there's these little R8.50 transactions from unauthorised vendors that have been requested, before a few larger transactions...I'm in shock!

I couldn't understand what had happened and how,, this has never happened before...but while on the phone to my bank institution to report the ***** that had just occurred, the date that was provided to me by the ***** department was the 27th December 2023, as to when those little *****ulent amounts had already started to be deducted!

I continued to investigate from my side and found an unknown Android device had accessed my personal data at the same time as those *****ulent transactions, so it’s at that moment that I realised with cer*****y that my old device had most likely been fixed, as it held all my data and most likely cloned and had been used to access my account details and other private data/info. The device has been with Jescom and is still with this Vodacom 3rd-party at present, with all history recorded on job number ***1.

@Vodacom Repairs Centurion, I definitely don’t want any other customer to experience a potentially *****ulent situation where their personal information can be accessed, through a repair process on their device:

1) You do not have protocols to prevent instances like the above from occurring with your 3rd party provider (Jescom), so you must be held accountable and take responsibility for infringements of this nature. 2) To date, I have not received confirmation that my old faulty device was "s****ped” and my personal data removed, which has resulted in my devices, email addresses, bank accounts and applications being compromised. I now regard this case as a serious infringement of the protection of my privacy/data, in line with the rights afforded to me, as per the POPI Act of 2013.

I will also be sending a copy of this complaint to the Information Regulator.