MTN sanctions 3,000 mobile money agents

Mobile Money operator, MTN, has sanctioned 3,000 mobile money agents allegedly caught in mobile money fraud in the last three months.

The move is part of efforts by the country’s biggest telecom company to sanitize and restore integrity to its mobile money platform.

In an interview on the sidelines of a media encounter with the Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA) in Accra on Thursday, the Senior Manager for Anti-Money Laundering, Compliance, and Analytics at MTN Mobile Money, Mr. Godwin Tamakloe, said some of the agents were currently being processed for prosecution.

“We are currently collaborating with the security agencies to process some of the fraudulent agents for court,” he stated.

According to him, some of the agents, after they had transacted business with the subscribers, called them back and later defrauded them, while other agents also overcharged subscribers.

Four agents were also sanctioned for wrong registration processes, which did not meet the Know Your Customer (KYC) Compliant requirement for subscribers. 

The company, which receives about 365 complaints of fraud monthly from subscribers, said it filtered all the short messaging services (SMS) that passed through its platform and blocked more than 400,000 scam messages on a daily basis from reaching their final recipients.

Mr. Tamakloe cautioned the public to be wary of scammers who sent text messages purportedly from a bank or mobile money operator requesting personal identification number (PIN), account number or other vital information, since they might certainly be fraudulent or phishing attempts.

MTN Ghana boasts a subscriber base of 18 million out of the 35 million subscribers for the industry and records more than GH¢36 million transactions on its mobile money platform monthly.

The senior manager advised mobile money subscribers not to click on dubious links in emails or text messages or send financial information by unencrypted emails.

“Always tell your bank or your mobile money operators about any suspicious emails or texts you receive, “he said.

The mobile giant, which, in 2016, recorded about GH¢56 billion in mobile money transaction and GH¢23 billion in value, has come under some criticisms for failing to safeguard the security of its mobile money platform.

Credit: Graphic Online

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