MTN Blocks 400,000 Scam SMSs Daily

Mobile telecommunication giant, MTN has disclosed that more than 400,000 scam messages are blocked on a daily basis from reaching customers of the network.

According the company, it receives about 365 complaints of fraud monthly from subscribers out of 36 million transactions on its platform.

Godwin Tamakloe, Senior Manager for Anti-Money Laundering, Compliance and Analytics at MTN Mobile Money made this known at a media encounter with the Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA) in Accra last week Thursday.

He said currently MTN has upgraded it system to fight mobile money fraud and are also in collaboration with the police to clamp down on perpetrators.

Mr. Tamakloe cautioned the public to be wary of scammers who sent text messages purportedly from a bank or mobile money operator requesting personal identification number (PIN), account number or other vital information, since they might certainly be fraudulent or phishing attempts.

The mobile giant, which, in 2016, recorded about GH¢56 billion in mobile money transaction and GH¢23 billion in value, has come under some criticisms for failing to safeguard the security of its mobile money platform.

In view of that the company has put some security measures in place to curtail the situation.

The company also advised mobile money subscribers not to be in a hurry to click on dubious links in emails or respond to text messages requiring financial or send financial information.

“Once a customer is in doubt about a certain text message the person should contact the MTN office for clarity”, Mr. Tamakloe said.

‘Cash Out’ Feature Back

As part of effort to check mobile money fraud, MTN has announced that it will bring back the ‘Cash Out’ feature which will be launched on November 4, 2017. The feature enables mobile money customers to select ‘allow cash out’ before an agent can initiate a transaction.

Abdul-Majeed Rufai, Business Development Manager, MTN said “We are bringing back that feature that will allow the customer first and foremost select allow cash out, turn it on, before an agent can issue the transaction”.

MTN Ghana boasts of a subscriber base of 18 million out of the 35 million subscribers for the industry and records more than GH¢36 million transactions on its mobile money platform monthly.

Source: thePublisher