Don’t be gullible this Christmas – Police cybercrime boss cautions

The Director in charge of the Cybercrime Unit of the Ghana Police Service ACP Herbert Gustov Yankson has cautioned Ghanaians against gullibility ahead of the Christmas.

According to him, Ghanaians tend to trust people easily to the extent of giving out their mobile money pin codes.

Speaking on the Alert show with Adam Bona, ACP Yankson said there is no reason good enough to share one’s pin codes as it makes it easy for fraudsters to thrive.

“Do not just trust anything that you are being told, at least try and verify. People just say I’m family member and before you realise they are sharing their codes with them,” he said.

He also said the fraudsters often come with packages that one cannot reject.

The caution from the Cyber crime division of the Ghana police service follows worrying numbers of mobile money theft.

Over the last few years, there has been a growing marketplace for fraudsters who take advantage of unsuspecting customers.

Emotional Delusional SMS

The fraudster often send an SMS that seems to have originated from the Mobile Money Service Provider (MNOs). The fraudsters will then call and tell the recipient that (he/she) the fraudster’s mother is sick at the hospital, he/she wrongly transferred some amount to your wallet instead to his/her sister at the hospital.

The fraudster will ask that the money be returned to a named number and under the guise of emotional sympathy, the subscriber sends the money without having verified the authenticity of the SMS.