Thanks to education and past lessons, many of us have become aware of the several ways fraudsters use to steal people's mobile money. However, fraudsters are always devising different means to get into people's account and steal their cash. Now mobile money fraudsters do not rely on their old known methods. They have advanced technologically and changed their techniques.
Instead of sending scam messages and calls or using erroneous transactions, fraudsters remotely activate your cash out. We cannot tell for sure how they do it. When this happens, "mobile money authorize" payment prompt will appear on your screen multiple times. This will require you to enter your pin code to continue the transaction. However, you should be careful and read whatever you see on your phone's screen and do not enter your pin code and agree to the payment.
The best thing to do is to cancel the authorize payment prompt. Watch out for multiple authorize payment prompts on your screen. If they keep on appearing, you can decide to switch off your device and turn it on later. When you do not proceed with the authorize payment you will get a call of a sudden from MTN office. Do not be happy because it is the fraudsters in the disguise of MTN.
The fraudsters will pretend to be calling from the office and they will tell you not to approve any payment on your device. They will even let you know that someone is trying to rob you and that you should enter your pin code.
Then they will tell you that they are going to call you later. As mentioned in the preceding paragraph they are not calling from any MTN office so do not relax your guard. When they call you, they will ask you of your pin code to change it for you so that your mobile money banking will be secured. You might see this as good news but it is not because MTN does not change mobile money pin code for their users. Mobile money users themselves are capable of changing their pin codes themselves.
Some may even ask you to deposit money into an account to enable you withdraw same. If you deposit the money, they quickly withdraw the money and that’s the last time you will hear of them.
Be vigilant and do not give them your code. To be on the safe side, reject their calls, switch off your phone or call the office (customer care line) for assistance.
By Clockworks (self media writer)