Mr Kumar is not on the line

I want to highlight how easy it is to give a telephone number that belongs to somebody else, as a contact number to a telecom provider without being verified.

I have been contacted by du collections centre about 40 times in the last three weeks on my mobile, which is an etisalat number, claiming that this is the other contact number that a certain Mr Kumar gave them. Obviously, he owes du a lot of money and can’t be found. I tell the caller every time that I am not Mr Kumar, I don’t know a Mr Kumar and that this number has been with me for many years, but the calls don’t stop. They promised to take my name off the list, but this was obviously a lie. In the past I have given my mobile number at outlets, but no more. We present our business cards at exhibitions and meetings. If it is so easy to pass on everybody’s mobile number as your own, without being verified, chaos breaks out. du should have done this in the first place when they accepted the mobile number for this Mr Kumar, then they would have realised that this is a prepaid etisalat number that belongs to me. I want du collection centre to stop these calls and start verifying this number.

From Dr Christina Amtmann

Abu Dhabi

The management of du responds:

In response to Dr Christina Amtmann, we have investigated the matter and the account holder in question. We have removed the customer’s number from the system records and updated the respective teams that she will no longer receive further calls for this account towards her number. We have communicated this to the customer to her satisfaction.

Dr Amtmann responds: I confirm that I received two calls from du collections centre. They looked into my complaint and they assured me that my mobile number has been taken off their list. Thank you for the great support Gulf News.

(Process initiation: August 27 Response from organisation: September 7 Confirmation from reader: September 8, Process completion: September 11)

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