Your GH¢11,000 momo theft was caused by social engineering — MTN tells customer

MTN Ghana has responded to a complaint by a customer that over GH¢11,000 was withdrawn from her mobile money account without her consent due to a system breach.

The telecommunications company, after a preliminary investigation, said the incident was not a system compromise but rather a case of social engineering.

MTN said the customer unknowingly shared sensitive account details with fraudsters.

“Our findings suggest that this was a case of social engineering, where a person unknowingly shares sensitive information (i.e., One-Time Password (OTP), one-time verification link, and PIN) with fraudsters,” MTN said in a statement.

The company advised customers to never share their PIN or OTP with anyone — not even with persons claiming to be from MTN — and reaffirmed its commitment to keeping transactions safe, convenient, and secure.

This response follows a viral post by the customer who accused the service provider of allowing a fraudulent withdrawal to take place without her knowledge.

According to her, more than GH¢11,000 was taken from her account on Monday afternoon, and despite reaching out to MTN’s customer support, she had not received any positive feedback.

The affected customer, who has since been invited by MTN for further engagement, has called on the company to strengthen its systems and enhance public education to help prevent such scams.