Mobile Money fraudsters have upgraded their fraud tricks. And this time, if you are not extremely careful, everything you have in your wallet would be gone in a twinkling of an eye.
This article is based on my personal experience, which occurred on Wednesday, November 3, 2021.
On Wednesday morning, I woke up to a Mobile Money (MoMo) authorisation prompt from a merchant, asking me to enter my PIN to authorise a withdrawal of GHC50. I cancelled the authorisation as any woke or vigilant person should. You should note that I didn’t allow Cash Out prior to the authorisation prompt. Also, it pops up just like how payment is done via MTN MoMo Pay at the mall or supermarkets.
A few minutes later, I received about five more authorisation prompts from the same merchant. I cancelled as usual.
I then received a call from an MTN number saying he is from Koforidua and that he accidentally sent me MoMo. So, I dropped the call the moment he asked me for a refund and threatened to get my number blocked.
I received another bunch of direct authorisation prompts. From there, I reported to MTN via Twitter, and they asked me to ignore the authorisation prompts.
A call from a landline followed, saying he is calling from MTN Office. According to him, they detected that someone was trying to fraud me and that I shouldn’t fall for their tricks. He dropped the call and warned me to stay vigilant.
About 30 minutes later, a Tigo-Airtel number called. He started by insulting my mum, claiming I made MTN block his Mobile Money number. I was mute throughout the call. He quickly dropped the call after insulting me. It was such a funny call. That was when I realised it was their new trick.
Then, a few minutes later, the landline called me again, telling me that they have blocked the person who attempted defrauding me. Then after minutes of sweet talks, he said he would help me clear the authorisation prompts on my phone. He then sent a 4-digit PIN through a text message from an app called Ayoba. He asked me to call out the 4-digit PIN he sent through Ayoba for him.
At this point, it was my turn to make a fool out of them. I gave them the wrong PIN instead of the one from Ayoba. I started with funny wrong PINs like; 1-419 and 2-419. At some point, I couldn’t control my laughter, so they dished out some hot insults to me and my family (as usual).
With this new trick, they don’t require your MoMo PIN. When they have the one sent to you through text message, all your money will be gone in seconds.
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