BoG moves to stop MoMo fraudsters targeting financial institutions

The Bank of Ghana has issued a warning to all financial institutions to be mindful of a new type of mobile money fraud.

According to BoG, fraudsters call bank staffs, tellers especially, claiming to be from the head office of one of the telecommunications companies.

The fraudsters then proceed to tell the staff that they have been instructed to train them on the reversal process for mobile money transactions.

“As part of the process, the staff would be asked to enter certain codes on the mobile platform. The codes entered lead to the debiting of the bank’s mobile wallet.”

“Per its mandate, the Bank of Ghana intends to raise awareness among institutions to this particular fraud to help minimise its occurrence,” the BoG said in a statement.

The institution advised banks to ensure that all staff members are made aware of the fraud type and advised them to have at least two people handling all mobile money transactions at a bank branch.

“The designated officials shall be at the management level at the branch/agency typically Branch Manager of Operations. The designated MoMo staff must not take instructions directly from the Telco’s representatives.”

BoG also urged that any communication between representatives of Telcos and bank staffs should be approved first by the Telcos’ head office.