Mobile Money fraud started at the same time telecommunication companies struck gold with their new money portability service.
However, as customers are becoming increasingly aware of the possibility of mobile money fraud, the fraudsters are also adapting and quickly changing their cunning and fraudulent schemes.
However, as customers are becoming increasingly aware of the possibility of mobile money fraud, the fraudsters are also adapting and quickly changing their cunning and fraudulent schemes.
You never know when you will be a victim.
Below are some cunning schemes fraudsters use to defraud innocent Ghanaians.
1. I have mistakenly sent money to your wallet, please send it back to me.
Usually, fraudsters send text messages to prior to this claim just so it will look genuine. Whenever you receive such a message and a call follows claiming money has been sent to you, maintain a positive composure, check your wallet to see if the said amount of money was sent to your wallet. If there has not been any money reflection, then its obvious no money was sent so you will need to ignore the person, if he insists contact your service provider. Do not initiate any transaction you do not understand.
2. Be mindful of monies that come to your wallet from unknown people.
In some circumstances, a fraudster will truly send you money and call stating they mistakenly sent you money and so you need to send it back to them. If it happens that you receive money from an unknown person, upon confirmation, if you want to send the money to the person, you need to use the only legitimate and approved process provided by your service provider to send the money back to the person, Do not listen to the person’s procedure for he or she is not your service provider. You might end up sending your own money in addition to his or hers.
3. Beware of callers who claim they work with your service provider’s company.
Anytime you receive a call and the caller claims he or she is calling from your service provider’s company and initiating any monetary conversation, you need to be extra careful because it might be a fraudster trying to play a mind game on you. You will need to ignore and contact your service provider yourself.
4. Do not get carried away by winning promotions you never took part in.
Fraudsters have really used this scheme to dupe people a lot. They will call you and claim you have won a said promotion and so you need to send an amount of money to redeem your prize. If this happens, ask yourself if you have taken part in any promotion? Ask yourself who redeems a prize with money? these are very important questions you can use to neutralize the scheme.
5. As a customer of a particular network, any call or text you receive which has to do with money or your mobile money account, please contact your service provider yourself to clear all reasonable doubts.
It is ideal to speak to your service provider if you are not too sure about the information given to you over the phone.
This is a menace in Ghana that has caused a lot of people pain and anguish. Some notable persons in society have also fallen prey. These persons include Vivian Jill Lawrence, Don Little among others.
Remember your mobile money account is meant to be kept as discrete as any bank account will be kept hence do not relay any information about it to any person regardless, except in special cases which will be upon your own request.
Mobile money service came into existence to make Ghanaian lives easier when it comes to sending and receiving money, do not make the usage of this amazing service frustrating for yourself by making it prone to fraudsters.
If unfortunately, you have been a victim of mobile money fraud, do not keep the experience to yourself, share with family and friends for them to know what exactly is going on so they can also learn to be on guard.
Learn to probe into things that are free and looks or sounds too good to be true, for it is said that “there is no free lunch”. Let us all be cautious.
Stay safe, and in the words of MTN Ghana, “Don’t be a MUGU.”
