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Hackers Hit South Africa’s Former Minister’s Phone and Solicit Money

 

As per a report, South Africa's former minister of communication, and minister of public service and administration, Faith Muthambi's phone got hacked when the scammers took over the control of it. Then the scammers used it for soliciting money from her colleagues and friends.

 

Sunday World said that Muthambi's friends and ANC comrades are receiving repeated messages on WhatsApp from her phone, which are requesting them to send money to her via ewallet. The content of the messages claims that Muthambi is in an urgent need of the money, which basically is a trick to scam her loved ones and friends.

 

After being aware of the hacking, Muthambi sent a message to her friends and family members on August 12, 2018, which said to ignore the messages pretending to be from her phone asking them for the money and warned them about the scam. The day she sent the warning messages, she also found that the scammers were able to rob an amount between Rand 2,000 to Rand 5,000 from around 15 of her friends and family members.

 

Sunday World paper quotes the warning message from Muthambi which reads as: "Dear family and friends: If you receive any whatsapp asking you for money, like the one above, it's not me. Someone has hacked my phone and I am still attending to it with Vodacom...."

The matter was taken up by Muthambi with Vodacom, the Telecom giant. She said that the hack has occurred due to an unauthorised SIM swapping on her number. Muthambi has accused Vodacom for authorizing the SIM swap of her number without confirming the whereabouts of the person who had requested for the swap.

 

As quoted by Sunday World paper, Muthambi said, "this is serious negligence, Vodacom must take full responsibility. This is very traumatising. I feared they were going to deplete my accounts and leave me with nothing."

 

A five-page hard-hitting letter of complaint has been filed by Muthambi, which demands an explanation for this negligence. However, Vodacom has only responded by reinstating her number. Though Byron Kennedy, Vodacom's spokesperson has confirmed that they are already investigating Muthambi's complaint.

» SPAMfighter News - 8/30/2018

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