MTN Mobile Money (U) LTD is intensifying the fight against mobile money fraud with the involvement of major stakeholders.
MTN Mobile Money Managing Director, Richard Yego (pictured), says the company will hold its first-ever webinar themed Conquer the conmen with key partners, including bankers, customers, financial intelligence executives and the public on 13 October 2022, with discussions centred around mobile money fraud.
“This is going to be one of those meetings where we shall discuss issues of mobile money fraud, key drivers, and how this can be deterred going forward,” he said.
“We all know that for mobile money to contribute to the country’s social economic transformation, it has to be trusted.”
He said some of the confirmed speakers for the webinar included: the Uganda Bankers Association Executive Director, Wilbrod Humphreys Owor, the Managing Director of Airtel Mobile Commerce, Japhet Aritho, Kenneth Natukunda, a seasoned Certified Financial Crime Specialist with the Financial Intelligence Authority and civil rights activist and founder of Makerere Community Church, Pastor Martin Ssempa.
The webinar will be moderated by Robert Kabushenga and aired live on both the MTN Uganda Twitter page as well as the company’s YouTube channel and will be accessible to the general public.
This comes in the wake of complaints from a section of subscribers for allegedly losing colossal sums of money through mobile money fraud.
MTN Mobile Money (U) Limited has since partnered with other industry players such as the National Payment Systems Providers Association and regulators like Bank of Uganda, Uganda Communications Commission to create awareness about the vice via radios and televisions.
The company has also appealed to its customers to follow the golden rules of security when transacting using Mobile Money, not to share their PINs, or the One-Time Passwords (OTP) with anyone, not to use simple PIN combinations that can easily be guessed, such as 00000 or 12345 or 33333; and that MTN calls its customers using the official telephone number 031 212 0000 only.
MTN partnered with Pastor Martin Ssempa to unveil his campaign known as Stop Bafere. Pastor Ssempa revealed that it was time to fight the rampant theft through digital financial channels. “It is time to act on the growing cases of mobile money theft. We shall no longer simply complain on social media as we get robbed,” he said then.
Although the value of mobile money fraud remains unclear, police believes that the stolen phones could be used to commit some of the mobile money fraud.
Uganda Police Force recorded a 2.4% increase in the case of mobile phone theft to 4,143 cases compared to the previous year, according to the 2021 Uganda Police Force’s Crime Report.
