Very interesting developments in this case! Vodaphone called this morning and agreed to drop all charges related to the fraudulent use of my phone after the mugging. I would like to think that the good people at vodaphone had a long and reflective discussion, carefully considering the moral and legal implications of my situation before coming to the correct decision. Or it could be that the Daily Mail contacted me and asked to run a story on my case. Whatever the motivation I'm pleased that vodaphone has done the right thing, and I would like to thank the members of this forum, and Ruth Lythe from the Daily Mail for support and advice. This was obviously a very traumatic incident and I'm pleased to the see the back of it. I would not be surprised if we see legislation covering this sort of situation in the next few years, but until then I wish others in similar unfortunate circumstances the best of luck.

Thanks Lee - I was contacted this morning by someone at vodaphone who is looking into my case, I should hear back by the end of the week at the latest on whether there is anything the company can do.

That is an interesting point Bang! Is it possible that the thieves removed the SIM card from my iPhone and then used it in another phone to make the fraudulent calls? After thinking about this whole situation a bit more, I don't see why the phone companies don't just block the dialing of premium rate numbers from phones that are overseas as a default, requiring the owner to prearrange them to be unblocked before their trip if they feel like they are going to be calling Kosovo a lot. This is precisely what I did with my debit card - I had to notify my bank of my travel dates and destinations before I left, and they unblocked my bank card for use in South Africa.

Thanks goodwill, that is a very clear explanation. What an insidious racket they have going on! And everyone profits along the chain, at the expense of the victim of crime. Ugh.

I've now received my itemized bill from vodaphone, which comes to £1700. The charges consist of about 350 calls to the same number, and look like this: Thu 24 May 17:54 Invoke CLIR Vodacom divert 0m 0s 0.000 0.000 VAT at 0% Thu 24 May 17:55 37745302153 Vodacom 17m 44s 14.400 14.400 VAT at 0% Does anyone know what "Invoke CLIR" means? Also, how are the thieves profiting from this exactly? Is 37745302153 a pay number, owned by a member of the gang? Is this useful information that I should pass a long to the South African police? Thanks again for your helpful comments.

Hi Besssmart, Locutus is probably right that is makes sense to start a new thread on this, but I'll give you my thoughts on your question anyways. I always leave data roaming off when I travel, and I always PIN protect my iphone. In this case clearly these were not obstacles for the thieves. If I were your husband I would consider buying a cheap pay-as-you-go phone for use while in South Africa, which seems to me to be the only way to avoid the situation I am in, (unless he carries mobile phone insurance). A cheap phone and SIM card will cost about £15 while there.

Hi Lee, Thanks for confirming that. Regards, Michael

I haven't actually seen the itemized list of calls yet - the bill has not been produced, but from what the customer service rep said on the phone today it is £1600 and growing. I simply can't afford that and I don't know what I'm going to do. I'll look closely at the timings of the calls, and make sure I am not getting billed for any after I called to cancel.

After a holiday weekend trying to forget about the massive bill I'm facing, I got a call from Vodaphone this afternoon with some terrible news. More charges are still coming in on my account, since the billing can take weeks to sort out. I'm now up to £1600 and counting. They are considering the situation and are trying to work towards some sort of solution. In the meantime, some of you have suggested I pursue my travel insurance. The insurance company I am using is Royal and Sun Alliance, who are provided by my employer, a British University. In the travel insurance memorandum that was sent to me, the part that applies to personal possessions and baggage reads: "BAGGAGE If the baggage of an employee (or other person authorized to use the policy) is lost damaged stolen or destroyed the insurer will indemnify the University for the cost of repair or replacement and the University will pass on the money or replacement property. See excess information in the exclusions list below. The sum insured is £5,000 in respect of any one Insured Person (subject to claims excess)" Under exclusions it goes on to say: "EXCLUSIONS Baggage Claim – first £50 of any claim for loss of personal possessions and the first £500 of any claim which includes the loss of departmental equipment is not recoverable." I don't have any more detail than this unfortunately, but I have written to the University for more clarification.

Hi Lee, the email reference number is #9161345. Thanks, Michael

This is a good point - I never thought of this. I will have a very careful look at the T&Cs over the weekend and see if there is anything I can do with my travel insurance.

Well, the customer care people got back to me and asked me to contact the Vodaphone insurance division. As I didn't have Vodaphone insurance on the phone, I thought this was odd, but I called anyways. Of course there is nothing they can do and they have referred me back to the customer care team. We'll see what happens next. I did have travel insurance through my employer, and they have agreed to cover the cost of the handset and my glasses which were also stolen. They won't however cover the calls which they deem 'incidental loss'. I agree with the above poster with regards to pay as you go. I've always preferred a monthly contract as I found it convenient, but now I am seriously questioning whether this is the best arrangement.

The customer service team has been in touch with me to verify details of the case. They want the police case number, which is fair enough. I'm able to provide this, along with the details of the detective in Johannesburg who is investigating the crime. Now I just wait some more I guess. In another thread a user posted a link to an interesting article that appeared on the mail online, describing how Orange offered a 50% reduction in the bill for a phone lost in Brixton. If Orange is willing to reduce the bill from a phone lost on a night out by this amount, then surely Vodaphone could do better for a phone stolen in a violent crime?

Thanks for the helpful comments! Yes, I do feel a little like I'm being mugged again, it was a traumatic enough experience without the £500+ additional bill. I've initiated contact with Vodaphone customer care on the web and I can only hope they see fit to make an exception here, but I'm not overly optimistic. I'll keep you informed as to how things progress.

Hello, this is my first thread on this forum and I have a question which I fear I already know the answer to, based on reading similar stories on here! Last week I was on a business trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, where I was beaten by a gang and robbed of my phone in broad daylight on a busy street. I was taken to the police station to file a report and recover from my injuries, all of which which took many hours. At the earliest opportunity I called Vodaphone and reported my phone stolen, and the person on the line reported that no unexpected calls were made, much to my relief. Unfortunately I have now received notice from Vodaphone that there were actually over £500 of charges that occurred during the hours between the mugging and my call. I called Vodaphone about this, and the customer service representative was unwilling to consider reducing the charges. I have done everything in my power to minimise the risk - the iphone was PIN protected, and I called the Vodaphone at the earliest possible opportunity given the circumstances. I understand that people lose their phones and run into this problem on a regular basis, however this situation is particularly difficult since it was not a case of simple carelessness or negligence, but the result of a violent assault that is being investigated by the police. My question is whether goodwill on Vodaphone's part is the only way to reduce these charge, or is there some other arbitration arrangement that I might investigate? Thanks for any advice.