This week Jou Ma se Purse looks at the hectic issue of identity, and identity theft, as we answer the call for help from Luthando Ndlela. Earlier this year Mr Ndlela mistakenly left his ID book at a phone booth at the Site ‘C’ train station in  Khayelitsha. He had taken his ID book with him to apply for a new job. It was only later, when he needed it to sign the contract, that he realized that it was gone.

The first thing that you must do when your ID book goes missing is call the South African Fraud Prevention Services (SAFPS) on 0860 101 248.

The SAFPS is a non-profit organization that then enters your ID number into their database and distributes it to all the banks, major retailers, micro lenders, and credit bureaus. This is so as to prevent financial fraud, which is big business as it turns out. Mr Cunningham, head of the SAFPS told Jou Ma se Purse that identity fraud has cost SA businesses over R1.1 billion in 2008 alone! It also costs the unlucky ouen who has had his ID book stolen a lot of troubles too, as Mr Ndlela found out…

A few months after he lost his ID, Mr Ndlela went looking for a loan. To his horror he found out that a R50 000 account had been opened in his name at JDG shops, as well as an account of R1700 at Edgars! He then reported his lost ID to the police and they gave him a case number and an affadavit, which is about as helpful as a pat on the back when you are the victim of identity theft and suddenly have huge debt against your name. Even a hug from a police officer would feel better than getting a case number.

The value of identity, knowing who you are, is that it gives you a sense of purpose. I remember how proud I felt when I turned 18 and could show off my ID to bouncers at clubs. Of course, a drunk 18 year-old is full of purpose! Same with whipping out my driver’s license the first time the cops pulled me over: there is something really satisfying about having an identity in the new South Africa; being able to walk or drive the streets in the land of Madiba with your ID book in your pocket to prove that this is your country. Nowadays your purpose has to be guarding your ID with your life. You have to keep it locked up at home and only take it out with you when you absolutely need to.

Even when you die though, you might still become a victim, as the syndicates  are using informants at funeral homes and the morgue to let them know about unidentified or unclaimed bodies. First they steal an identity, then they get their ‘runners’ to take out a policy. Once they have a body, they declare the person dead and sommer claim the money. Because of HIV and AIDS these morally corrupt criminals are exploiting the huge number of life and funeral policies being taken out by honest folk just looking for security.

We can’t just blame the syndicates though. We can also blame our own government! Over the past 18 months the new Department of Home Affairs Director-General Mavuso Msimang has arrested, fired or suspended hundreds of officials in his department for stealing identity documents and passports and selling them to foreigners. Even though the new Sheriff at Home Affairs must be commended for rooting out corruption in his department, his zero-tolerance approach to crime might soon find him without any staff!

Lastly, if you don’t want to have yourself to blame when you find yourself without ID, in debt, and having to prove who you really are, here are some tips from Jou Ma se Purse:

• Don’t give out your personal details online, over the phone, and don’t put them up on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
• Tear up any papers you have with your sensitive financial information on them, rather than just throwing them away.
• Don’t carry your ID book or any extra credit cards on you when you know you won’t be needing them – rather keep them stored safe at home.

To register with the South African Fraud Prevention Service, call 0860 101 248 or e-mail safps@safps.org.za. If you know of anyone involved in identity theft, call the Anti-Corruption Hotline on 0800 701 701.

CONSUMER CRAPOUTS:

Can’t exactly complain about the service if I get NO SERVICE AT ALL!!!!!!

~ Abdullah, Mitchell’s Plain

How more useless can telkom get? What happend to qualified staff?

Who can’t get a job? Go to telkom, no qualifications needed. More stupid the better! Who’s the CEO, would love to speak to him! Please someone from telkom reply to this because you don’t answer your phones! And when you do, you play as if you can’t hear me! I can clearly hear you typing away in the background fools!

~ Shane, Bergvliet

Reported line out of order, 2 weeks later not corrected, no feedback, no calls answered, have no fax or internet, use for business. Telkom customer service is the worst in SA!

~ Anneline, Ocean View

“You are number 529 in the queue… your call will be answered in approximately 57 minutes.” Sound familiar? This is the automated customer response from Telkom’s 10212 number, when you call in with a problem. If you decide rather to go in to a Telkom branch to complain, they just refer you back to the 10212 number, as this is the only way you can lodge a complaint. So the kak thing is there is nothing else you can do but sit on the phone… and wait forever. If my phone’s not working, how in the hell am I supposed to phone in my complaint anyway? Do they expect me to use 57 minutes of my airtime? Telkom. Hellkom more like. It sure is hell dealing with them.

Us consumers are still suffering from Apartheid, because Telkom is a business hangover from those dark days. Like Eskom and South African Airways, Telkom is a ‘parastatal’, which means it’s a government-owned company. Which is why, up until now, they have had no outside competition — the government just banned it. And we’re still paying the price for this attitude of indifference, this intolerance of competition. Whether it’s the apartheid government’s groot, wit krokodille, or the new South Africa’s big, black hippopotamuses, politicians are all corrupt to me. They can hardly be entrusted with running a government, let alone a company.

Competition is a healthy, important part of capitalism and very necessary for the way business is run in our society. Ultimately it benefits the consumer the most as it keeps prices down and standards up. It provides us with choice. The power is in our pockets. NEOTEL is finally on it’s way, and hopefully this should at least give us another option, other than waiting on the line listening to that kak Telkom elevator music.

Telkom has paid FIFA 30 million US dollars to become an associate sponsor of the 2010 World Cup. They also spend millions and millions of rands sponsoring late-night golf tournaments on DSTV, the Sunday Times Finders Keepers, as well as on advertising themselves (when we all know how crap they actually are). My question to the Acting CEO Reuben September (as he calls himself… why, does he think that he is only acting, that this job of screwing his customers is only make believe?) is this: couldn’t that money be better spent? Take the millions of dollars and rands you spend trying to make yourselves look better, and spend it on actually improving your core business. Employ more technicians, employ more consultants, and invest in ‘fault reporting’ systems that actually work. Cut down on the freebee golf games and soccer tickets you score from your sponsorship, Mr September, and if nothing else, hire that chick from the Cell C commercials. Her voice is at least sexy. I could listen to her all day long.