A New Zealand consumer affairs TV show called Target ran an episode on 19th April 2011 about a young Vodafone customer that appeared to have left a Nokia mobile phone and SIM card unattended for a few moments, only to find that it had disappeared on her return to collect it.

The gist of this particular episode was to publicize the unsatisfactory response from Vodafone once they were contacted by their customer about the lost SIM card and handset.

It appeared from this episode that another party (allegedly a Michael) was in possession of the customers SIM card and was actively using it to make calls and send text messages.  The customer upon realising that the SIM was being used by another party contacted Vodafone for assistance.

It appears that in this instance Vodafone placed a bar on the phone to prevent calls being made from it.  However, it then became apparent that the party in possession of the SIM card was simply able to call up Vodafone and answer a few security questions to have the card unbarred/unblocked.  The third party was easily able to answer the security identification questions posed by Vodafone as they all related to recent call history such as calls made and texts sent.

In my opinion, I feel that a customer should be able to completely cancel a SIM card if it becomes lost or stolen (regardless of whether it is a Pre-Pay or contract account).  If I compare this to the banking industry, when a credit card or EFTPOS card is cancelled due to misplacement or theft it can not be reactivated and a replacement must be re-issued.  Vodafone should operate in a better manner for the safety of its customers.

I believe that the SIM card concerned in this particular incident was a pre-pay SIM, of which you don’t have to register your personal information with Vodafone when you purchase one.  I can see how without any sort of registration Vodafone is limited in it’s ability to accurately identify that a person on the end of the phone is the legitimate subscriber of the mobile account.  If you don’t have a method of identifying users who have not registered then you would take a big risk in blocking accounts.  Anyone could call up and have any unregistered pre-pay accounts cancelled.

The overall security of ones handset and SIM card should be a shared responsibility between the customer and the mobile network provider.  When the provider is informed of a loss or theft they should take immediate actions to cancel the SIM card completely assuming they can verify that the caller is the owner with certainty.  If a customer subsequently locates his or her SIM card they should still be required to get a replacement.  Who pays? that’s another story. (more…)