Mobile Telephony Scam Uncovered
The advent of Information Technology Communications (ICT) has hastened development in many a country and Ghana is no exception. Through ICT, there is also a lot of competition within many sectors of the economy. One of such sectors that has witnessed perhaps the most fierce competition in the country is the mobile telephony industry.
Ghana presently has five major operators in that sector with all being multinationals. These are MTN, tiGO, Vodafone, Zain and Kasapa. The sixth, Globacom is yet to role out in spite of it being granted a licence to operate.
Considering the stature, calibre and clout of each of these players, the scramble to outdo each other or to gain the top position has compelled them to adopt many means including promotions to reward their existing customers and also win more into their fold.
As a result of the promotions, the industry has enjoyed more patronage and that has propelled Ghana into the lead as the one with the highest teledensity which is the number of subscribers per every 100 people, on the continent within rate of more than 60 per cent.
Most of the players have just completed their major raffles with Zain giving out GhC70,000 to a single subscriber while Vodafone gave out what is said to be the biggest prize in the country’s corporate promotional history, a US$1 million mansion and a 4x4 vehicle.
MTN, the leader in the market is also having its promotion and has very attractive prizes which value is also unprecedented, a move the company believes is to offer many of its subscribers, an opportunity to win something.
Unfortunately, through the use of ICT, there are some unscrupulous people who are taking advantage of the situation to dupe unsuspecting subscribers.
But MTN, through its effective monitoring has discovered the scam and drawn the attention of its valued subscribers to it.
According to the company, “a promotional scam is currently going on in the country and it has been specifically targeted at MTN subscribers”.
The scam, the company said involves the use of text messages which give an indication that a subscriber has won a prize or prizes in a promotion.
“The false text message also requests that subscribers redeem their prizes by purchasing a specified amount of recharge units and texting them to another MTN number or by making cash payments to a specified account” the company said.
It is unfortunate that in spite of the numerous calls on subscribers to be on their guard as to what to do when they won a prize, these have fallen on deaf ears and people continuously subject themselves to such scams in their desperation to win a prize.
Against this background, MTN has asked any subscriber who receives text messages of such nature to disregard it in its entirety “because they do not originate from MTN”.
The company said to ensure that the call was authentic, subscribers could confirm all genuine MTN promotions from the official MTN website or call the 24-hour dedicated Customer Care hotline to authenticate all promotions and procedures for redemption of prizes.
As part of plans to arrest this problem, the company asked subscribers to always remember the following that; “All promotions from MTN Ghana can be authenticated on the official MTN website.
It is expected that players in the industry would also ensure that their subscribers are not placed at the mercy of fraudsters who are making the use of ICT unattractive and unproductive. Share Your Thoughts on this article Name Email Location Comments Graphic Ghana may edit your comments and not all comments will be published