Ghana loses $136,000 to fraudsters in 2 years

• Posted on October 15, 2020October 15, 2020
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

It has emerged that Ghana lost a total of $136,000 to the activities of fraudsters in a spate of two years.

Addressing participants on a Workshop on Cybercrime Schemes in the Era of COVID-19 which is part of the cyber security awareness celebration, a representative from the Bank of Ghana, who is also a panel member, Kwame Agyapong Oppong noted that about $93,000 was lost to the cybercriminals in 2018 and $43,000 in 2019 in the mobile money sector.

He urged the National Cyber Security Centre NCSC management to fast track the creation of awareness and public education to eradicate the menace of fraudsters in the mobile money sector.

A representative of MTN Ghana, Godwin Tamakloe hinted that MTN Ghana has invested about $2.5bn to build a system that can protect customers in the mobile money sector and make fraud costly for the criminals.

According to him, suspected criminals who used their phones to defraud their victims risk having their mobile phones and sim cards blocked to deter potential perpetrators.

He also refuted claims that insiders in the Telcos leak confidential information of clients to the fraudsters.

Adding he said, “MTN respects and protects data and privacy of its clients; hence disgruntled staff of the agency are been deactivated from the systems of the company immediately.”

ACP/Dr. Herbert E Yankson Director of Cyber Crime Unit stressed the need for a collaboration between the telecommunication networks and government agencies to help check and monitor the activities of the suspected fraudsters.

He pointed that the digital address system facilitated the tracking of cybercriminals adding that it has helped the public to report the activities of mobile money fraudsters with ease.

To tackle the challenges of fraud in the financial sector and create public awareness, a representative of Financial Intelligence Centre, FIC, Kofi Boakye also stated that his organization has secured a new online reporting and communications portal.

Mr. Boakye disclosed that FIC receives financial disclosures of, suspicious transactions report, cash threshold report, electronic fund transfer reports about the threshold, including full account disclosure report on request , politically exposed persons report among others.

By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey