Vendors Go Wild Over MTN Mobile Money Fraud 

Some mobile money vendors have charged telecom giant, MTN, to work at reducing mobile money fraud on the company’s network.

Some victims of mobile money fraud called into the station during and after Citi FM’s Business Today programme, which discussed the growing cases of mobile money fraud on Wednesday.

According to statistics, at least fifty percent of Mobile Money subscribers have either experienced one form of fraud or have been a target for Mobile Money fraudsters.

One of the vendors, who only gave her name as Mabel at Spintex, complained about a repeated act where cash sent are converted into airtime after which the receivers get calls from anonymous persons.

“I am a vendor and it is only MTN I have, this issue keeps recurring, sometimes when I transfer money, the receiver gets it in credit. Then they get a call from another person telling them to follow certain steps to convert into cash only for them to be swindled,”  she said.

“I had about three or four complains. My question is, how do the people know that the money has been sent to a receiver as credit. I think the system is compromised,” she said.

She added that, despite making complaints to MTN, the telecom operator informed her it will be unable to deal with the matter since the victims normally disclose vital information that grant access into the account.

“So I went to the MTN office to make a complaint and the lady who attended to me said there is nothing they could do about it because I am not the only one who has complained about the issue.”

But Manager in charge of Mobile Financial Services at MTN, Solomon Hayford debunked the claims.

According to him, the station has always addressed suspected mobile money fraud with the CID when they are reported.

“These claims are not true; they are false. We have transaction record for all transactions since the start of the service. It is a mandatory requirement by the Electronic Money issuers’ guideline that we keep transactional records for at least six years so that allegation is not true” he clarified.

He pointed out that, the situation is made difficult when mobile money users willingly give their account details, including secret pins to people.

He emphasized that under no circumstances will an MTN worker demand for the pins of a mobile money account.

Business Solutions Analyst at Ecrime Bureau, Philip Dankwa Debrah, advised that vendors as well as customers should be vigilant in their transactions to avoid getting swindled.

“We need to be very vigilant in terms of the processes. One way we can have it clear is that, if you are a mobile money merchant, and you have recruited somebody you may have to do background checks, due diligence checks on the person handling the transactions for you because it is very possible for business owners to bring in people who are equally criminals” he advised.

Head of Cyber Security of the CID, Chief Superintendent Dr. Herbert Yankson, pointed out some activities customers can avoid so they are not swindled.

“What we realize is that, a lot of them tend to believe whatever they are told. They tend to be so gullible and tend to believe whatever somebody calls them to say. They rather must do some form of due diligence to avoid any fraud attack” he advised.

Source: Citibusinessnews