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This is the new way criminals are using mobile money to defraud innocent people

A number of people who have fallen victim to the new wave of tricks being employed by these criminals have shared their experience on social media.

It appears that despite the much extolled positives of the mobile money service, criminals have begun using new ways to defraud people.

One Facebook user, Mavis Bimah posted:

"So much scam around. Dear friends just be careful. The mobile money scam is real.

A young man called me this morning crying and pleading to me, Claiming that he mistakenly sent 500 cedis into my mobile money wallet account. Upon hearing this i quickly checked my balance which i had only 146.00 in my account.

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Seconds later a message was received from this number 0241608098 showing I got 500 cedis transferred into my account and my current balance was now GHC 2189.26 which didn't make any mathematical sense to me. So I went back to check the account again and it was still GHC 146.00.

I realized I could have made a transfer of 500 cedis if I had not checked the balance again to confirm. He then called again to give me some codes which he got from MTN office in order for me to use to transfer the money back to him. At the point i realised it was a scam.

NB. Per my balance the transfer wouldn't have been successful but what if I had more than 146.00 cedis in my MM account? I called the gentleman back. And really gave him some mouth lashing. His response - "This is what am doing to survive get off my line stupid girl".

#Lessons

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Don't let the crying deceive you to act in a haste. Always cross check MM Balance when such claims are made. Pay attention to Details. READ ooo READ. Read the whole message WORD for WORD."

Another Facebook user, Bilkis Mukhtar also shared the experience of her brother, which was similar to that of Mavis Bimah.

"This number 0549908705 just defrauded my brother via Mobile Money. I called and he even has the nerve to tease me on top of that. I've reported the case to MTN and they said they'll investigate the matter. Just take note of the number as the "Cash In" message they send looks real until you refund the amount, you may not detect that it's a scam!"

Be safe people!"

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