Offers to purchase, OTP fraud and defective goods

In this weekly segment of bite-sized chunks of useful information, consumer journalist Wendy Knowler summarises news you can use:

Be wise to the fraudsters’ vishing tricks

How exactly do fraudsters convince their victims to give them their one-time-password over the phone, which allows them to raid their bank accounts?

After all, the banks include in the text containing those OTPs — the keys to the safe — the words: “DO NOT READ THIS CODE TO ANYONE ON THE PHONE.” Yes, in capital letters.

In Odette’s case, and probably many others, the fraudster convinced her that she had to read out that text, word for word, as a form of voice verification.

She told me: “He said: ‘I'm sending you an sms now, (and I heard the tapping of the computer keys). ‘Please read it out for voice authentication to attach to your fraud case file.’

“When that sms came through, I told him I'm not reading out an OTP SMS.

“I asked him why he couldn’t use our recorded conversation to verify me. That’s when he told me the sms is not authentic; it was sent by him and he claimed to have used the same sms to record the impersonator.”

That makes little sense, of course, but being rattled, she obliged, giving him the OTP he needed to spend on her account.

The advice is very simple. If you get a call from anyone claiming to be from your bank’s fraud department, end the call immediately, and call your bank’s actual fraud division, using the number saved in your phone’s contact list, to make 100% sure that your account is not under threat.

That OTP is a binding contract

Do not sign an offer to purchase (OTP) for a car lightly. It’s not a quote; it’s a binding contract.

Before you sign, ask questions about your liability should you change your mind, and especially about any deposit you are asked to pay. What are the terms? If you pull out of the deal, how much of that deposit will you be refunded? In fact ask those questions every time you are asked to pay a deposit for anything.

Some dealerships let customers off the hook if they renege on the deal, but others — tired of having done all the paperwork, got the car delivered in the customer’s chosen colour, had it specced as requested and all the rest, only to have the person say they changed their minds or got a better deal somewhere else — choose to take legal action to force the consumer to honour the deal.

And they can, according to motor industry ombudsman of South Africa (Miosa) Johan van Vreden. “We get complaints about this virtually on a daily basis,” he told me.

Equally, the OTP is binding on both parties; not just the consumer. So if you’ve signed an OTP for a car, paid a deposit and complied with absolutely everything the dealership asked of you, only to be told that the car has been sold to someone else, push back, hard. (And let me know.) The dealership is obliged to find you a similar car at the same price.

Keep paying for it, even if it breaks

That sounds like really bad advice — we have rights as consumers, don’t we? Yes, but the credit ombud’s warning is spot on.

Many consumers buy a major appliance or piece of furniture from a retailer on credit, and when it malfunctions or proves to be defective in some way, they report it, and should they not get the recourse they are after, they protest by not making any further payments.

“They are unaware that the credit department, which deals with credit agreements and payments, is separate from the department dealing with repairs and defective goods and may even not be in the same city,” the ombud’s office said. “Sometimes these departments do not necessarily know of consumers dealings with the other.”

Hence the advice to keep paying according the agreement, as unfair as that seems.

“Not paying in protest gives rise to a breach of their obligations under the credit agreement,” the ombud warns. “This has far-reaching consequences for consumers as this breach is recorded on consumers’ credit profiles and results in the credit profile being impaired.”

That’s not to say that you should accept shoddy goods and services!

If the company refused to honour the warranty — the Consumer Protection Act’s six-month warranty, which entitles you to choose a replacement or repair — or the manufacturer’s warranty, lodge a complaint with the ombudsman for consumer goods and services.

• GET IN TOUCH: You can contact Wendy Knowler for advice with your consumer issues via e-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za or on Twitter: @wendyknowler.

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