Police arrest 3 mobile money fraudsters

Three mobile money fraudsters have been arrested by the police. The three suspects were apprehended on April 20, 2017 after MTN Ghana officials shared a tip-off with the police in Accra.

The arrests took place at Santa Maria, a suburb of Accra, where the suspected fraudsters were hiding. 

The police said the modus operandi of the fraudsters included sending scam messages requesting unsuspecting subscribers to call specific numbers to redeem cash prizes. 

The unsuspecting customers were then lured into sending money into the scammers’ Mobile Money wallets as a precondition for receiving the nonexistent prizes.

During the arrest, the police officers retrieved eight SIM cards, seven mobile phones and one laptop with numerous incriminating scam messages which were about to be sent to other victims. 

A quantification exercise carried out also revealed that the fraudsters had earlier defrauded customers to the tune of GHS 7,200.

The arrest comes at a time when Mobile Financial Services has been plagued with an increasing spate of customer-related fraud cases. 

According to MTN, as pioneers of the Mobile Money service in Ghana, it was committed to actively educate stakeholders in order to reduce fraud. 

To this end, the communications giant, in partnership with the E-Crime Bureau, has organized a series of workshops and community engagements to sensitize subscribers, security personnel and other identifiable groups. 

Eli Hini, General Manager, MTN Ghana Mobile Money, said, “The MTN Mobile Money service is committed to providing the highest level of security to protect its users. The system and processes conform to best practices in the industry and the service is highly regulated by the relevant authorities.  We encourage all our valued Mobile Money customers to be vigilant and take steps to protect their pin codes."