The Ghana Police Service (GPS) says it has noticed the re-emergence of a common type of mobile money fraud lately.

It has therefore cautioned the public to be vigilant in order not to fall victim to such criminality.

A statement signed by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Effia Tenge, the Head of Public Affairs Unit, Accra Regional Police Command, and copied the Ghana News Agency, said there might be other modes of mobile money fraud, nevertheless, the Command had noted more reported cases in the 'mode of operation', sequentially listed below:

The fraudster begins by sending an SMS notification to the phone of a targeted victim, indicating that he or she had been credited with money, for winning a promotion.

"Few minutes later, the fraudster calls back but this time under the pretext of being an employee of a telecommunication network, and warns that their system had detected attempts by some person (s) to defraud him or her.

"Based on this, the targeted victim would be 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.

On the blind side of the victim, the fraudster authorizes a cash transfer from the vendor's account to his, which the victim is expected to make payments.

"After the transaction, the mobile money vendor asks the victim for payment, only to realize they have both been defrauded."

The Police asked mobile money vendors to ensure that they collected money before initiating a mobile money transfer.

It cautioned the public not to entertain any phone conversations with fraudsters and under no circumstance must they share their mobile money PIN with anyone.

"Also the public should note that authentic mobile money messages follow existing trends in the SMS inbox. The message is not sent through personal SMS telephone numbers," the statement said.

GNA
SOF
18 Mar.21