BY Ndumbe Bell Joseph Gaston in Douala
MTN Cameroon has expressed their firm commitment to continue intensifying their fight against digital maroaders attempting to extort money and benefits from their subscribers.
In a stark warning to hackers by the General Manager, Alain Nono of the MoMo division of MTN Cameroon on Thursday, September 25 at the Yello House in Bonapriso, Douala, (in the presence of their partners, the press and close collaborators such as the gendarmes and the police), he told the eight million MoMo subscribers and the entire public to rest assured and continue their daily transactions and to stay calm and confident, as they go about their daily transactions in the face of these attempts.
In accordance with the theme, “fight against fraud and protection of our customers”, the GM of MoMo revealed the declining trend of the fraudsters generally but some of the challenges are that since the entry of MoMo services in the facilitation of banking services and payments to other social amenities like bills and school fees, much money is channelled through this service where fraudsters use the ignorance of the customer, to do brisk business and make profit.
Another challenge to block the malicious acts of these hackers, is because of the rapid change in advanced technology. He pointed out the globality of the acts which is not linked only to Cameroon or the Cemac zone, and emphasised that each time they use modern technology to frustrate the hacking, the criminals sooner or later do catch up and start breaking through in using all types of techniques and strategies.
MoMo panelists reported that in 2023, global loss through fraud amounted to US dollars 1000 billion. At a given period, customers in Cameroon lost FCFA 3.5 billion among others, according to statistics that were cited by the specialists.
They presented four types of fraud namely cyber fraud and and agat fraud among others. They are said to be regularly used by crafty men in Cameroon. Another type called sound engineering has been foiled by 87 percent, MoMo pointed out.
These are some of the types of scams that are used in Cameroon. The sim swap is when the hacker wants to know a lot of details of your contact including your code. Phishing swap is that which you are called or informed through massaging by someone informing you have won a tv-set and a number of prizes. You are instructed to call a certain number and asked to come for your prizes.
MoMo panelists elaborated that MTN will not call you using a personal number, MTN will call you through their SMS, and not through an ordinary number, they warned customers. They reported that details of their investigation show that these types of hacking are generated by sources from Yoko prison, Buea central prison, New Bell central prison and others. Sometimes your life is threatened to send money. There is another where you are set-up in a criminal act or so and menaced to send money.
In the fight, MoMo is expected to sustain the fight against fraudulent acts on it’s customers using preventive, detective, treatment and collaboration measures. Prevention includes education of their eight million subscribers and the public through sensitisation, safety and personal efforts.
Momo constantly collaborates with the gendarmes and the police and the GM, Alain Nono personally acknowledged their support each time they are called upon to help. They intend to intensify their campaign through a volume of sensitisation (in the neighbourhood or through door-to-door exercises) especially towards the end of the year where there is a spike in financial activities. On sanctions, 500 agents were suspended nationwide. There will now be a training session for agents. Over 2000 fraudsters were blocked nation-wide.
So far, Alain Nono and close collaborators were upbeat in their estimates that the recent campaign by hackers or fraudsters has suffered from failures and significant decline.