Police trained on mobile money fraud
To deal with the challenge of the emerging problem of criminals swindling people through the use of mobile money transfers, a day’s workshop has been organised for some police personnel in Accra.
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The workshop aimed at equipping the participants, 40 police personnel, with the requisite knowledge to effectively investigate fraudulent transactions involving mobile money transfer.
It was organised by e-Crime Bureau, a private company, in collaboration with mobile network provider MTN and a media advocacy group.
At the opening of the workshop, the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Bright Oduro, said mobile money transfer was becoming a fast and easy way of transacting business in recent times.
However, he said, it had also become an opportunity for criminals to swindle unsuspecting people.
It was, therefore, imperative for the security services to collaborate with other stakeholders to deal with the menace, he added.
Sophisticated crime
The police, DCOP Oduro said, were usually the first to receive complaints about fraudulent mobile money transactions, for which reason it was necessary that police personnel were equipped with the requisite knowledge and skills to fight the crime.
“Crime is becoming increasingly sophisticated, organised and networked. Crime fighting, therefore, needs the holistic collaboration of all stakeholders. The police will collaborate with other stakeholders to clamp down on such fraudsters and their criminal activities,” he said.
The director-general urged the participants to use the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and upgrade their skills for detecting and investigating fiscal crime.
He urged the public to be wary of the activities of unscrupulous characters in order not to fall victim to them and also report to the police immediately they fell into the trap of such swindlers.
Cases
In a remark, the General Manager, Mobile Finance Services of MTN, Mr Eli Hini, said the company had recorded a nine million subscriber base and over 60,000 merchant points for its MTN mobile money services across the country.
“Every good thing creates an opportunity for social deviants to take advantage of and cheat unsuspecting persons,” he noted.
Consequently, he said, the mobile money service had experienced a few setbacks with fraud, which had been customer related and not system related, adding that MTN had taken a number of steps to ensure that its systems were robust enough to provide a secure service.
The customer-related setbacks, Mr Hini said, had been categorised into phishing, advance fee scams, overcharging by merchants, identity theft or impersonation and cash-out theft.
He said in 2016, the company received a total of 28 reports of fraud cases per month, adding that the number had shot up in the early part of 2017 with an average of 43 cases per month.
“This is a serious cause for concern for us,” Mr Hini said and expressed the hope that by the end of the workshop, the police would be in the position to effectively deal with digital crimes carried out through mobile money services to help the country develop a cash-lite economy and increase financial inclusion.
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