Loan phone surprise

VANITA PRASAD

NOT IMPRESSED: Jason Woolston was shocked by what he found on his loan cellphone from Vodafone.

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BE CAREFUL what you leave on your cellphone because you never know who will pick it up.

That's the message from Jason Woolston after he received a loan mobile with 400 text messages and 30 photos, some sexually explicit, still on it from the previous user.

The Titirangi resident was given the phone by Vodafone repair staff as a temporary replacement while his was being fixed.

And he was shocked at the unexpected extras that came with it.

"There were photos of an erect penis and people on the toilet," Mr Woolston says.

He says the rude photos were funny at first but he soon wondered what would have happened if his 17-year-old daughter had got it instead.

"The photos were quite graphic and it's the last thing you want to see when you switch on your loan phone."

He says what shocked him even more than the intimate images was how much information he could get about the user.

"It's pretty scary," he says.

"I know his full name and where he lives – as well as his girlfriend's particulars."

Mr Woolston says the experience has made him wary of leaving any personal details on his mobile in case he ever lost his and someone less scrupulous found it.

"I'm going to delete all my messages every day."

He says staff at the New Lynn Vodafone branch told him something similar has happened before.

But Vodafone's communications manager Matthew East says the company will make sure this is the last time.

"The guys at the device team have a policy of always wiping loan phones before they send them out," Mr East says.

"It seems to be a breakdown at our end which has resulted in this and we have contacted Mr Woolston and apologised."

- © Fairfax NZ News