LOUIS TRICHARDT – Illegal telephone calls made from Telkom customers' lines seem to be on the increase.

A senior citizen from a farm just outside town received an account of R2 870.12 for the month up to December 17, 2002. Her normal account varies between R200 and R250 per month. The international calls on the outrageous December account, included calls to Angola, Canada, India, Lesotho and Pakistan. The cellular calls on the account amounted to R608.86, none of which where made by the elderly lady. The lady who is nearing her eighties preferred not to disclose her name and address because she had already experienced four robberies at her farmhouse and was shot at on New Year's Eve last year. Fortunately the bullet went through her hair, missing her head by millimetres.

Another huge bill with international calls was received by Mr Ben Visser from the farm Lindashof approximately 9km on the Vivo Road. The same countries as mentioned above were involved, but added to the list were Egypt, Italy, Japan and America. The calls to Pakistan accounted for R937.49 of the bill. His account for November/December was R1876.15 as opposed to his normal bill of R150 to R210.

Mrs Eleanor Visser, the fraud victim's daughter-in-law who lodged the complaint on his behalf, said that she found the local Telkom personnel accommodating. She only paid for the calls that were actually made by the customer. Telkom's friendly service, however, does not eliminate the cause of the problem.

"Why can't they nail these fraudsters? It seems that nobody stops them," said Mrs Visser.

Meanwhile Telkom has issued a statement that they are continually improving their capabilities in the war against clip-on hackers. Telkom "has brought the network fraud rate in South Africa below the international average" reads the statement. This was mainly through the introduction of a new computerised fraud management system that detects irregular calling patterns on customer lines.

The most common form of network fraud is the so-called "clip-on" fraud, where fraudsters clip onto a customer's line and sell calls to overseas destinations for a fraction of the normal rates. They pocket the money and move quickly from location to location. All the international calls on the accounts of the local complainants may point to fraud of this nature. Mrs Visser said that the Telkom official who served her had apparently written off unauthorised calls on customers' lines to the amount of R35 000 at one till alone during this billing cycle. Last year Mr Hennie Terblanche and other residents from the Rondebosch farm had similar complaints.

According to their statement, phone pirates of this nature cost Telkom R174 million in stolen call time during the 2001/2 financial year. Although this is a staggering amount, Telkom says that it is still below the international benchmark.

Telkom's Senior Manager: Corporate Communication, Ms Ingrid Krige said that Telkom has established a confidential whistle-blowing service for members of the public to expose perpetrators of Telkom-related crime anonymously. Customers who become victims of network fraud are encouraged to report this to Telkom's 24-hour sharecall number 0860 124 000.