VODACOM AUTOMATICALLY LOADS A BANKING APP TO YOUR CELL PHONE USING MTN's BALANCE ENQUIRY PHONE NUMBER

<p>VODACOM (indirectly casts MTN in poor light!)</p> <p>I operate 2 cell phones – one Vodacom and one MTN – both are on pay-as-you-go (I travel internationally extensively and thus cannot commit to long contracts).</p> <p>A week ago I dialled *141# to get my MTN balance, but inadvertently I dialled using my Vodacom cell phone. Immediately I received an incoming message “You have successfully subscribed to Vodacom WIG services”. </p> <p>I had absolutely NO idea what “WIG” meant or what I had subscribed to/for. I telephoned Vodacom to complain and to have the “subscription” reversed, however NO ONE at Vodacom was able to tell me what “WIG” meant. Finally the main Customer Services was contacted by a local Vodacom agent and they too had no idea what “WIG” was. After about 45 minutes on the telephone, someone in the customer services section informed the local agent that “WIG” was a subscription for a BANKING APP. </p> <p>The customer services at Vodacom advised that they could not reverse the subscription and I had to call into my bank and get my bank to reverse it - this I was told when I refused to give my banking details to the Customer services agent!!! </p> <p>I told Vodacom that my bank had nothing to do with Vodacom a) using the exact phone number MTN has for balance enquiries, and b), my bank would have no knowledge of anything that Vodacom automatically loaded onto my cell phone!. Vodacom customer services COULD NOT understand why my bank would not be able to reverse the banking app that Vodacom had loaded onto my cell phone! The Vodacom customer services agent then advised that I was to dial a number which would automatically stop all and any automatic apps that had loaded and I would get a confirmation message that “WIG” had been stopped. Dutifully I dialled the number given, anticipating a cancelled/reversed message from Vodacom..... 5 days later this has yet to arrive. SO WHAT HAVE I additionally Put into my phone having dialled the ‘new’ number the Vodacom customer services gave???</p> <p> </p> <p>MTN in all likelihood is completely oblivious of the fact that Vodacom is using the same number as MTN balance enquiry number, which automatically loads an unknown BANKING APP delivered by Vodacom, instead of giving you your MTN balance (if you inadvertently dial MTN’s number on a Vodacom cell phone in error). Is it even allowed that Vodacom can ‘*****’ MTN’s long-in-use balance enquiry number?</p> <p>Is Vodacom’s “WIG” – unknown ‘banking app’ a method to ***** ID/banking details surreptitiously? In this land of ours, rife with *******ion and *****, this question begs an answer.... and can the answer even be believed?</p>