GHANA: e-Crime Bureau commissions survey on mobile money fraud

An ongoing survey conducted by the e-Crime Bureau of Ghana has so far revealed that incidents of mobile money fraud have heightened.

The development comes after the central bank in its latest Banking Industry Fraud report for 2019 indicated that some internal staff of banks collaborated with fraudsters in a recent mobile money scam that hit the financial sector.

According to the Head of Business Operations at the Bureau, an assessment shows that 7 in 10 Ghanaians have had an experience with mobile money fraud.

Speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb on the sidelines for this year’s launch of the National Cyber Security Awareness month, Philip Danquah Debrah explained the rationale for the survey is to understand mobile money fraud from the consumers perspective.

“The survey is intended to direct policymakers and stakeholders to look into what really are the concerns of the consuming public. Now, because of financial inclusion, a lot of consumers are moving towards mobile money transactions, despite a lot more people having bank accounts, a lot of people still make transactions with their mobile money accounts rather than their bank accounts,” Debrah said.

“Small Medium Enterprises are now thriving on mobile money and that is what is really making the Ghanaian economy grow further and so this survey will look into what the experiences have been in terms of individual users of mobile money,” he explained.

Danquah Debrah added that that survey by the e-crime Bureau will also critically look into the nature and type of mobile money fraud.

The survey will come as part of creating awareness during the month-long National Cyber Security Awareness month which is being spearheaded by the Ministry of Communications and the National Cyber Security Centre.

SOURCE: GHANAWEB