3 Signs you’re about to be a mobile money fraud victim

Most often, it doesn’t occur to people how easy it is to become a victim of mobile money fraud until the deed is done, and they find themselves red-faced and confused about how they never saw it coming.

Even for individuals who pride themselves in their ability to spot scams easily, dealing with these fraudsters is becoming quite challenging as they are becoming sophisticated with their methods.

In this article, we’ll learn three telltale signs that mean you’re dealing with a mobile money fraudster.

Signs you’re about to be a mobile money fraud victim

The fraudster asks you to dial the *170# code

Unless you already have a transaction in progress at a mobile money agent’s stall, you must never dial the MoMo code, especially when it’s a stranger requesting that you do so. What happens is he will engage you in conversation to distract you, and then ask you to enter a sum and then your MoMo PIN.

Once you do that, you end up losing money even before realising what happened. You’ve been scammed!

You get a missed call and text from a known number asking for money

This is one of their newest tricks I recently encountered. So I got a call from a friend, and just as I picked, the call dropped. She didn’t pick up when I called back but sent a text saying she’s at the market and urgently needed money to be sent to another Mobile Money number.

I assured her that I would, but before doing so, I need to hear her voice. She took offence, and I held on to my money. It turned out that my friend’s phone was stolen and the thieves were defrauding her contacts by pretending she was stranded at the market.

Whenever you receive such SOS messages from your loved ones, insist on hearing their voice. Ask them questions that only they can appropriately answer, and if it’s not them, the thieves will pretend to be disappointed — in an attempt to guilt-trip you into doing their bidding. Ignore their tricks; lest you become a mobile money fraud victim.

Fraudster poses as an authorised MTN official

This is one of the oldest tricks up their sleeve. Genuine MTN officials wouldn’t call with a known service line. And such officers would not insist on helping you reset your Mobile Money account PIN from their personal computers at home.

If anything, genuine customer service personnel from MTN Ghana would not hesitate to refer you to any of their service centres to address your problem. Remember to question people and request their names and the service centres they supposedly work with.

Note down their numbers and make a follow-up at the office, but don’t dial *170# ever.

It’s easy to become a mobile money fraud victim unknowingly, which is why you should never dial the service code when a stranger asks that you should. That is the first rule to being safe from fraud.