SMS fraud: MTN Ghana schools customers

Lead mobile telephone company, MTN, is cautioning subscribers to be awake to a series of promotional scams originating from foreign and local numbers.

MTN says the scam involves the circulation of text messages falsely indicating that a subscriber has won one of several prizes in a promotion and should redeem their prizes by calling specific local or international numbers or to visit certain websites with a given PIN and to submit their bank account information for payment within a specified time.

A statement issued by MTN said typical scam messages look like the following:

• Ghana MTN urgent last chance, call now on number xxxxxxxx to claim your prize.
• You have won xxx amount in the ongoing promotion, call xxxxxxxx number to redeem your prize.
• Call now for free on xxxxxxxxxxxxxx to receive your xxx amount or it will be cancelled and transferred to another winner

“To reduce the risk of being defrauded customers should be guided by the following:

• Calls or messages genuinely originating from MTN are from the official line 0244300000; hence any subscriber receiving text messages or phones calls from any number other than 0244300000 must totally disregard them as they do not originate from MTN.
• All promotions from MTN Ghana can be authenticated on the official MTN website www.mtn.com.gh or MTN Ghana’s facebook page www.facebook.com/MTNGH or our Twitter page twitter.com/mtnghana. Customers are to take particular note of the addresses and must not be deceived by any variation, no matter how small.
• Valid promotions can be confirmed from any MTN Customer Service Center.
• MTN does NOT charge ANY money before prizes are redeemed; hence any request for money before a prize is redeemed is fraudulent.
• MTN does NOT require customers to send airtime to ANYBODY; hence any request for airtime or recharge cards/units before a prize is redeemed is fraudulent.
• MTN regularly publishes the names of winners of ongoing MTN Promotions on the MTN Ghana website www.mtn.com.gh and in newspapers.
• MTN will directly call all winners of promotions organized by the company by using the official MTN line 0244300000.
• Redemption of prizes is done ONLY at MTN Customer Service Centers and accredited dealer premises.  Redemption centers will be set up whenever required at ONLY those locations."

The statement assured that MTN is committed to working with the security agencies and all stakeholders to eliminate the problem.