Updated/New Mobile Money Fraud In Ghana 2021 To Beware
Since the introduction of mobile money in Ghana, fraudsters have taken opportunity to scam and defraud so many people. These scammers always devise new tricks and or modify old tricks to find people fall in as victims. I have on countless occasions experienced mobile money fraud attempts and I bet you, it isn’t easy. You could lose every last pesewa in your mobile wallet to these fraudsters if you are not being smart enough. This post tends to update you on the new and updated Mobile money fraud right from my last post on How To Avoid Being Victim Of Mobile Money Fraud. The said mobile money fraudsters seem to have updated their tricks, hence the need for this post in order for you to be wary of not becoming a victim. Before then I will share some golden rules of mobile money to help you protect your mobile money Wallet
The Golden Rules To Protect Your Wallet
Below are the golden rules of mobile money which you need to follow in order to avoid being victim of mobile money fraud in Ghana or other African countries.
✔ Never try to reverse a wrong transaction if you don’t personally know the sender.
✔ Never reveal your mobile money PIN under any circumstances to anyone not even any agent or staff of any telecom network.
✔ Do not succumb to any assistance by an unknown caller to reverse a wrong transaction.
✔ Do not hesitate to report purported “wrong senders” to the telecom network.
✔ Ignore unknown pop ups instructing you to enter your mobile money PIN to make payments.
✔ Hung up the call the moment you realize it’s a fraudster, be wary to not keep long conversation with them, you might be convinced.
✔ Change your Mobile money PIN immediately if you suspect someone could have access to it.
✔ Do not mention any unknown code that’s sent via any means to an unknown caller.
✔ Withdraw all your funds if you can’t keep to all these rules.
Updated Mobile Money Fraud Tricks
This new fraud trick is an updated trick, which could take you by surprise if you are not vigilant. It’s an ear-by-ear account of one of the mobile money users who nearly got scammed by these fraudsters.
1. You will get Mobile Money authorisation prompt from a registered Merchant urging you to enter your PIN.
2. A call from a fraudster telling you about a wrong transaction to your Mobile Money wallet.
3. Many of mobile money authorisation prompts from the same registered Merchant even after cancelling it.
4. Another caller claiming to be a staff of the telecom network (usually MTN)will call to tell you to stay vigilant(don’t fall to that)
5. Another call from the same fraudster jabbing you for being the cause of their mobile money number being blocked.(it’s all tricks)
6. The fake MTN staff will call again asking to help clear the authorisation prompts on your phone or unblock your account.
7. The fake telecom agent will send an SMS of a 4-digit PIN to you using Ayoba app.
8. Once you send or mention the 4 digit pin to the purported telecom network staff, your money will be withdrawn.
Now this is how the whole experience and explanation goes. You will get a Mobile Money authorisation prompt from a merchant, prompting you to enter your PIN to authorise a withdrawal of any amount. Cancel the authorisation as any vigilant person would, once you have not allowed cash out or not intended to make any transaction. Note that it pops up just like how payment is done via mobile money Pay at the mall or supermarkets. You will continue to receive more authorisation prompts from the same merchant. Be wake and cancel them!
After that, you will then received a call from an unknown number telling you he mistakenly sent a certain amount into your mobile money wallet. He will ask you for a reversal and threaten to get your number blocked. Never mind, hung the call! You’ll again receive many of direct authorisation pop-ups which you should ignore.
A call from a landline or any number will call, claiming to be a staff worker of the particular telecom network you are dealing with, particularly MTN. He will tell you they(MTN) have detected that someone was trying to fraud you and so you shouldn’t fall for their tricks. After saying that he will warn you to be extra careful and will drop the call(in order to gain your trust)
In about few minutes later, another different number will call you and start attacking you with insults, claiming you reported for his number to be blocked by the telecom network (MTN). At this point you can hung the call or just allow him to drop the call after his insults.
The landline or the fake MTN staff worker will call you again claiming they(MTN) have blocked the person who attempted defrauding you. Then after minutes of near gaining your trust, he will tell you he is going to help you block and clear all the authorisation prompts on your phone or unblock your wallet. They will then send a 4-digit PIN through a text message from an app called Ayoba. He will quickly ask you to call out the 4-digit PIN he sent through Ayoba for him. At this point if you make any least mistake by mentioning out the 4-digit PIN to them, they will have access to your mobile money wallet and all your funds will be withdrawn! Be vigilant and stay safe!
Important:: Report any MTN mobile money fraud via email at [email protected].Text a Message (an SMS) to 1515. Or Report Fraud to any MTN Service Center. Call 100 to report Vodafone cash fraud and 100 to report AirtelTigo money fraud
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