Mobile Money fraud is a growing vice in Uganda that has left many in tears, wondering how they lost a certain amount of money. Laziness is largely to blame for where scammers are currently exploiting every weakness in the system to make quick money.

According to a report from the Criminal Investigative Directorate (CID), at least Shs 5 billion was shoddily sent to 877 AIRTEL SIM cards, while Shs 5.5 billion was sent to MTN SIM cards.

Mobile money fraudsters employ a variety of techniques, to the extent that telecom agents have also fallen prey to this vice.

AGENTS

Requests for Float An agent will receive a phone call from someone pretending to be a fellow mobile money operator and yet it is a fraudster. They will go ahead and describe a former transaction you did together and rush you into sending the float in the name of “I have a customer.”

Cash Swap

In this case, a fraudster disguised as a customer approaches an agent to make a transaction for a certain amount. He will then hand you the exact amount of money he needs to send. When he realizes you have carefully counted it, he will then ask for it, claiming he cannot reach the person he needs to send the money to. However, within a few minutes, he will claim to have another number to send the money to. He will hand you the same amount of money, and an agent will probably not bother recounting the money, but in actuality, he was handed back fake money instead. By the time one realizes it, the transaction has already been made.

Night crawlers

These pause as customers who approach an agent shop come in the night and make a huge transaction, and most times it will be a cash deposit. However, they will wait for a time when you want to retire back home and gang up on the agent and rob him or her since they are sure the agent has cash on them.

The most common trick played on agents is when a customer gains the trust of a mobile money operator by being a frequent customer and making huge transactions. That same day, the customer calls the agent to transfer a huge sum of money to his number, claiming to be in a fix and that they would pay it back as soon as they could. Unfortunately, they never return and switch off their phones. They literally disappear from the face of the earth. However, agent-customer scams have been greatly reduced because of the improved mobile money interface.

CUSTOMERS

Urgent call that money was mistakenly sent. This is the most common mobile money theft trick. A random number will call you to humbly send back money that has been mistakenly sent to you. However, because you have not seen any message indicating you have received money; one will try to check their balance. In the process of putting in the pin, you will lose money because the caller initiated several transactions on your phone number.

Threaten to close your line. As mentioned above, unknown people will call, claiming to be telecom company agents or even offering employment opportunities. However, to access all these fake services, one has to share their mobile money pin code.

Withdraw money without permission. This can be done by someone with whom you are well acquainted because it requires someone to put in a pin code after initiating the transaction without your knowledge.

Reading number loudly. This is one of the growing tricks in mobile money theft. Ochan Michael narrated how he was robbed. He innocently approached a mobile money operator to withdraw money on his MTN line. He went ahead and did all the procedures, inserted the pin, and later received a message confirming the transaction. On asking for his money from the agent, he said he did not withdraw the money. Confused, Ochan showed him a message confirming the transaction, but the agent insisted he had not withdrawn any money from him. After a few minutes of shock, one of the agents nearby said that someone else had withdrawn the money. As Ochan was reading his number, someone else was initiating, and so when he inserted the pin code, the money was transferred to the fraudster instead.

Sim card hacking. Most of us use phone numbers when opening social media accounts, bank accounts, email addresses, and so on. Technology, unfortunately, has made it possible for someone to clone and hack your SIM card. All they need is a few seconds with your SIM card, and they’ll be able to hack it so they can easily access your banking details and other private information.

To avoid mobile money theft, one should do the following:

• Do not share your PIN over the phone or with any third party.
• Verify any SIM registration request with your service provider’s
• call center (Call 100) or other channels established for consumer
• engagement (UCC Toll-Free – 0800 222 777).
• Ignore or report people who are threatening of registering or disconnecting your phone number.
• Don’t use codes or approve transactions you do not know.