Many Safaricom (M-Pesa), MTN, and Orange mobile money users in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Ghana report a possible hacking scenario involving their mobile money account at some point in time.
As the trend towards using cashless or mobile money services has risen over time in African countries and worldwide, so has the number of fraudsters and money-theft techniques. Fraudsters or scammers keep finding new ideas and ways to steal money from vulnerable mobile money subscribers.
In fact, cybercriminals have gone as far as hacking the central systems managed by telecommunication companies. For example, some months back, MTN Cameroon and Uganda were involved in this sad situation. Luckily the monies of the Momo users were recovered and secured.
How to Hack a Mobile Money Account? (How Fraudsters Steal)
Here are tricks that mobile money scammers or fraudsters use to hack and steal your money on most mobile money platforms (MTN, Orange, Telkom, Safaricom, etc.):
- Sending a false message stating that your mobile money account is locked
- Sending a spammy message to hack a Mobile Money account
- Unknown Calls alleging that your close family member requires help or is involved in an accident.
1. Sending a false message stating that your mobile money account is locked
The mobile money hack or trick begins when you receive an SMS from a random number informing you that your MoMo account is blocked. This was followed by a call from an unknown number within two minutes. These calls are usually from the perpetrators.
When this fraudster calls you, he will pretend to be a mobile money vendor or merchant. They will then say that he has erroneously sent you money intended to be sent to someone.
Furthermore, the fraudster will continue saying he was perturbed you might withdraw the money, and that is why he has reported your number for them to block so that you will not be able to withdraw the money.
He will now ask you if you have seen an SMS or message. As a human instinct, you will confirm that you have received a message. The thief will now tell you to hold on for him to call the mobile money customer care for them to unblock your number.
Within minutes you will hear this fraudster acting like he calls the mobile money customer care; someone will pick up, acting like he is working in the mobile money office.
The fraudster narrates a similar story to his fraud partner on the phone, pretending to be talking from the telecom mobile money office.
To conclude the scam, the person pretending to be talking from the official mobile money office will tell you to follow some steps to unblock your account.
Unfortunately, if you follow the steps, you will see your account drained later. All the procedures they will take you through are not to unblock your account but for them to gain access to your mobile money account and drain it.
Suggested: How to recover your WhatsApp account from Fraudsters and protect it.
2. Sending a spammy message to hack a Mobile Money account
This is yet an alternate trick that mobile money hackers or fraudsters use.
You will receive a message informing you that you have won a car, smartphone, television, or cash prize, and to claim or confirm your gift, call this number.
The fraudster will wait for you to call. However, if you do not call, he will contact you and tell you before you can get what you won, you need to follow some procedure.
What he will do is they will tell you to dial some shortcodes. If you do not hang up the call, he will withdraw all the money in your mobile wallet.
Read: How to create a free Bitcoin wallet.
3. Unknown Calls alleging that your close family member requires help or is involved in an accident
This is what the mobile money hacker does: You will receive an anonymous call, and when you answer it, this man will tell you that your daughter or son has been involved in a ghastly accident and has taken your child to the hospital.
He will continue saying your child's health condition is critical, and the medical doctor demands an emergency blood transfusion.
If he sees that he has managed to get your full attention, he will inform you he is giving the phone to the doctor.
When the supposed medical doctor continues with the call, he will tell you that you need to send a certain amount immediately for him to procure blood for your child; otherwise, your child might die.
How to avoid being scammed by Mobile Money Fraudsters?
- If you have a child and are not sure where the child is, tell the person on the phone that you will call him back.
- Next, make sure you check and are extremely sure your child is safe.
- Install apps that can track or trace unknown incoming numbers or calls. This will fend off mobile money petty thieves, hackers, or fraudsters.
- If you are scammed or discover your MTN or Orange mobile money account has been hacked and the money has been withdrawn by unknown individuals, report the case to the nearest police station and call the Orange or MTN customer care service.
Conclusion
Fraudsters or scammers in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, India, and elsewhere find innovative tricks to steal money from vulnerable people every day. The best recommendation to be safe is to stop paying attention to spammy messages and calls.
See Also: How to Get Free Money in Your Mobile Money Account.