Telstra mobile phone scam alert: Scammers steal $13K from South Australian man
A South Australian man was hit with more than $13,000 in charges after scammers opened 10 mobile phone accounts in his name. This was done without his knowledge or permission.
Tim Kennett believes that the scammers got his details whilst using Telstra’s online chat feature.
Kennett told 9News:
“I received an account for $8,632.18 for a three-week period for 10 mobile phones that were opened by the person that stole my personal details during the Telstra chat,” he told nine.com.au.
“That was just usage. Another $5,000 was charged for set up and cancellation fees for all those phones."
What makes matters worse is that the matter took three weeks to be resolved by Telstra and their team.
“I kept a record from January 10 to February 7 where I made 73 calls and 22 emails to Telstra and never received one reply back. It was totally up to me to sort this out from my end,” he said.
“Not once in those three weeks did Telstra call me back, even though it was escalated to several managers.”
After spending 80 minutes on the phone with an operator, the situation was resolved. However, it was a tedious process.
“He had to cancel each of the eight mobile services one by one and then cancel my personal account with Telstra before he re-opened a new one to stop any further fraud,” Kennett said.
“My issue with all this is the lack of customer service and empathy you have dealing with these call centres in India. My story is an example of what can go badly wrong.”
A spokesman for Telstra told nine.com.au that they take scams very seriously.
“Make sure your computer is protected with regularly updated anti-virus and anti-spyware software,” the spokesman said.
“Don’t respond to unsolicited requests to access your computer – companies will never ask you to do this. The scammer wants to infect your computer so they can access your passwords and personal details.”
Have you been scammed like this before? Let us know in the comments.