East Coast Radio - Catch Up Consumer Hacks with Wendy Knowler

That’s not me, that’s a clone

Loading player...
Here is a fast-growing scam - fraudsters copy your social media account, your name, your photo, even your videos, and set up a near-identical fake. Then they slide into your followers’ comments and messages, posing as you, to sell them something dodgy or fish for their money. It happened to me. So, every now and then, check whether a cloned version of you is out there. Tell your followers what your real handle is. Report the fake to the platform. And if you do find an impersonator, a cyber security firm can sometimes get it taken down faster than you can.
27 Jul English South Africa Education · Self-Improvement

Other recent episodes

Never stop paying the whole bill

If your municipal bill is wrong, dispute it. But keep paying the part you don't dispute. That one move takes away the municipality's lawful grounds to cut off your water or electricity while the dispute drags on, and these disputes drag on for months. Do it properly. Put your dispute…
11 Sep 1 min

Shake the sand out

Back from the beach in a hired car? Get the sand out of it before you return it. Nur returned his rental car with sand in the footwells after a family trip to the Drakensberg and was charged R600 extra for a specialist valet. Rental agreements generally allow the company…
10 Sep 1 min

Your usual Uber is going away

Uber has retired its UberX option – the go-to for many South Africans, and from this month you have four options. Uber Go is a smaller car at a smaller price, for quick trips around town. Uber Comfort gets you a newer car with extra space, and you can request…
9 Sep 1 min

Paying for the privilege

Roderick asked me: "When you have an account with a retailer and it is fully paid up, why do they still debit you with account fees when you have a zero balance? I buy maybe twice a year from this retailer and always pay my account up as quick as…
8 Sep 1 min

Pay down the card that's nearest its limit first

Your credit score is not a judgment of you. It's a forecast built from behaviour, and behaviour can change. The thing lenders consider most, after whether you pay on time, is how much of your available credit you're using. TransUnion tells South Africans to worry they’ve used up more than…
7 Sep 1 min
All episodes