Criminals Device A New Mobile Money Fraud strategy – Police warns

Criminals who operate by defrauding unsuspecting mobile money users have devised a new convoluted style to outwit victims, the Police have warned.

In a statement by the Public Affairs Department of the Greater Accra Regional Police, the public was warned to be wary of clever reverse-psychology by these criminals who will intentionally send a message announcing that you are about to be defrauded so they can get you to panic into making mistakes.

According to the Police, the fraudsters have resorted to sending text messages to phones of victims claiming they have won a lottery or their accounts have been credited with an amount of money.

Then they will proceed to call the mobile money user, and pretending to be staff of telecoms companies, claim that they have noticed an attempt to defraud the user.

“Based on this, the targeted victim is advised to proceed to a nearby mobile money vendor to get the scam attempts blocked. At the mobile money vendor, the fraudster requests to speak with the operator directly on the victim’s phone,” the police statement warned.

The police cautioned that the fraudsters operate on the blindside of the victim, by authorizing cash transfers from vendors to their account. After the payment, the mobile money vendor asks the victim for the payment only to realize they have both been defrauded.

The statement is signed by Superintendent Efia Tenge, Head of Public Affairs. 

It worried that even though other ways have been used to defraud mobile money users, the police have more reported cases of this new mode of operation.

The statement advised mobile money users to take note that authentic mobile money messages follow existing trends in the SMS inbox, adding “the message is not sent through personal SMS telephone.”

For vendors, it urged them to be extra diligent.