Don't know about others but I'm getting an inordinate amount of unsolicited SMSs offering all and sundry from co's I've never heard of. The circumstances are particularly fishy and lead me to believe that Vodacom either sell their customer database or Vodacom employees do so for personal gain. For context: my wife and I use different surnames; until 2009 I'd lived abroad for over a decade; I have no accounts with anyone - even municipal accounts are in my better half's name. The only exception is a Vodacom mobile contract. Here's what's happened:
- I recently reached the annuity date of a 2 year contract with Vodacom and terminated rather than renewed
- Prior to cancellation I received some sms spam, but not at the volumes currently being experienced
- I retained my number on a prepaid basis for a few weeks whilst shopping around and realising that Vodacom and MTN are equally pathetic even when dealing with corporate accounts. During this time I received no unsolicited SMSs
- Choosing the devil I know, I resigned with Vodacom and kept my number. No sooner was I back on contract than the unsolicited SMSs were back and the volume is now around 10-15 messages a day including ungodly hours of the evening
- Thinking through their business model, there's little incentive for them not to sell their database - they collect revenue from the DB sale to the broker, then if they're lucky from the spammer SMSing you, and then if they're really lucky from you when you send 15 SMSs daily to opt out of the unsolicited messages
Today, after receiving 3 messages inside of a minute I picked up the phone and called the responsible company - Direct Axis - some CT loanshark outfit operating under the guise of making personal loans (of course to people they know cannot afford it). I speak with their marketing manager tell them I want out and ask them where they got my number. The give me the name and number of an outfit called Black Moon. I call the pricks, ask where they got my details and they put the phone down. I call again and explain nicely that I'm going to get to the bottom of this with or without them and that the question is quite simple - either Vodacom's selling it to them or they're obtaining it illegally from Vodacom employees. Either way I'm happy to take it directly to Vodacom and implicate their organisation in the process. Now suddenly I have their attention and they claim they don't know the source offhand but would look into their records and get back to me, as well as remove me from their database. Very eager to be cooperative...
Of course they won't call back, and at best I'm off their database for a while anyhow. So, before I take it up directly with Vodacom, can anyone shed some light on whether Vodacom do in fact sell their customer database?
