The Uganda communications commission (UCC) through its telecommunications mandate scans and develops new measures against cyber fraud. However, as the Internet is more popular in all corners of the country, fraudsters are always on the hunt for new tricks and vulnerable zones. By the same formula, UCC has learnt of these new tricks that have replaced the old ones we all know about given the mobile money tax momentum bridging new heights.
A few months back, several MPs were chipped into a mobile money trick that saw many loose millions of Shillings to the master minders of the game. But then, UCC cracked down on the sim swap trick that saw a few Telecom officials visiting Police cells giving birth to a new generation of mobile money fraud tipped by the commission.
#FRAUD ALERT #MOBILEMONEY FRAUD. Attached is abridged text making rounds on WhatsApp. To investigate authenticity of such Electronic fraud with the interest to safeguard & protect consumers, any victims are advised to register a complaint to @UCC_Official Toll-free on 0800133911 pic.twitter.com/MvehARdwlW
— Ibrahim Bbossa #IKB (@IBbossa) September 23, 2018
In 2017, mobile money fraud rotated around SMS messages where a stranger could send you a mobile money text with the exact denotations and message type as a typical telecom message sent from a mobile money agent. However, the usual locations were more from remote areas like Kalangala, Moroto, Busia and the fraudster would convince you into sending them back the sent money. In the process, you send real money to the stranger who then blacklists you with verbal abuses in case of a failure with both Men & Women involved.
In the new mobile money trick exposed by the commission. Fraudsters send you real money on your mobile money account and plead for a refund to help them bail out a relative or a sick individual. In return, when you actually send money back to the strange number, your mobile money account will completely be wiped out with no chance to be happy like Bosco in his Momo Pay moods.
How to prevent mobile money scammers from visiting your account
To prevent this high ranking mobile money trick from visiting your mobile money account. Safeguarding your Pin and using caller identification apps like Trucaller can help you get rid of the tremendous situation of Stranger calls as a name is shown and legal action can be flagged off.
Therefore, as we ant stop the revolutionary Tech generation, mobile money scams continue to prevail in each and every corner of the country and the continent as Ghana also suffers similar attacks. In addition, Sauti Tech inked a few types of mobile fraud exposed by UCC to avoid all sorts of mobile money scams that can easily dry up your e-wallet to Zero.
Types of mobile money fraud
Anonymous calls from fraudsters: Customers receive calls from fraudsters after deposits to transfer funds received with the claim being airtime. False Promotion: Customers are lured to authorize cash out transaction with the claim of winning Mobile Money promotion.
Cash out Fraud: Customers are pushed payment approval prompt and lured to enter their pin code in order to receive price won through Mobile Money. False
Promotion: Customers are lured to visit merchant point to redeem price won through Mobile Money.
Scam: Fraudsters calling to dupe customers under the pretext of delivering goods from abroad. Some fraudsters call and ask for specified amounts to be deposited into a mobile money account, in exchange for goods from relatives/friends from abroad.
False Cash out SMS: Fraudsters send false cash out messages to merchants for authorization of which the physical cash is issued by the merchant to the fraudster without the equivalent e-cash.
False Promotion SMS: Fraudulent consumers send fake SMS to agents either from their own handsets or generated from computers. The SMS looks genuine to the recipient.