Punters, what is the best practical way forward to protect ourselves from falling prey to this? It's really something that could destroy you. They use your number and rack up info of your relatives and then threaten you, I've been told by a punter.

"Potential solution"
Start a thread where you name the SP you contacted who landed you in hot waters.

Pros:
Immediately those faulty SP's who are siding with these scammers will have to chose between reputation and scanners, bet money what they'll chose?

Con:
Problem is, we don't want to damage the reputation of those SP's who are genuine and bring us joy and satisfucktion.

Whats the way forward?

N.b. for some, it's very difficult to keep and hide a second punting only sim/phone (SO got you by the sack)

Generally you contact 2 or three SPs. So it's difficult to point out the exact one.

Also scammer steal SP fone.

SP sell call log a few weeks after you called.

You might just end up naming and shaming an innocent service provider.


Punters fone.
I leave mine at the office.
Got a cheap R150 one. So no one even looks at it.

@abiem
If a scammer steals an SP phone how do they get the password to open the phone to get the numbers of punters?

My phones are password protected. And never left in a place that they maybe stolen or compromised. Due to the extortion going on, I have offered all my clients an option to delete all messages, whatsapp's and any other form of contact in their presence at the end of the appointment to add to their peace of mind.

Arizona

On 2021-05-11 21:08:42 Mike40 said:
@abiem
If a scammer steals an SP phone how do they get the password to open the phone to get the numbers of punters?

I once forgot my pattern that I used to lock my phone .. it took the cellphone repair shop exactly 10 minutes to unlock my phone and it cost me 100 rand... So if a skelm knows there is a potential of thousands waiting in a contact list they might just be willing to pay to open a phone..or they might have a equally skelm friend that knows how to open phones.

There is also the possibility that there is no pin on the sim but just on the phone and numbers might be on the sim..

Best and most simple advice is a punter's phone.

Name and shame never works, innocent people get hurts in the process.

On 2021-05-11 20:53:19 Helicockter said:

N.b. for some, it's very difficult to keep and hide a second punting only sim/phone (SO got you by the sack)

If you can't even hide a punting phone, just stop punting. It's either you're just gonna get caught, considering that you don't even have the leeway to hide an extra phone, or, you'll eventually get a call/SMS from "Officer Niekerk". You wanna play dangerous games without sufficient safeguards, then be prepared for what's likely to come.

You just laugh at the guy over the phone, and block him. They will move on to the next target. They've called me around 3-4 times, every time i play along for awhile and then burst out laughing.

On 2021-05-12 07:33:22 Ulquiorra said:
You just laugh at the guy over the phone, and block him. They will move on to the next target. They've called me around 3-4 times, every time i play along for awhile and then burst out laughing.

Don't think it will be a laughing matter the day they call you and your wife picks up.

A punting phone is the ONLY option. I have laughed off so many scammers it is not even funny. But first I play along and try my best to frustrate THEM, knowing they will never have my true identity. In the end they just block me, lol.

#ScammersMustFall