A total amount of GH¢27 million was lost as a result of mobile money fraud incidents recorded by Payment Service Providers (PSPs) in 2022, according to the Bank of Ghana.
In its 2022 Fraud Report for Banks, SDIs and PSPs, the Central Bank however noted that the figure decreased to approximately GH¢26 million due to some recoveries made.
Per the report, the value of loss in 2022 increased significantly as compared to a loss of GH¢12 million in 2021, representing an increase of 117%.
In contrast, the number of mobile money fraud cases saw a marginal decrease. A total of 12,166 cases were recorded in 2022, as against 12,350 cases recorded in 2021.
According to the BoG, mobile money fraud has become very predominant, especially, to the vulnerable who mostly are unable to read.
“The aged and uneducated users of mobile money are not very conversant with the application. They would usually handover the phone to other people to do transactions on their behalf. Their PINs are compromised since they have to give it out to a third party to do the transaction,” the Central Bank explained.
The BoG further revealed that there is a lack of attention to security by most people in using the mobile money application.
“Also a general lack of security awareness has largely contributed to victims easily falling prey to fraudsters. Some users of mobile money do not periodically change their PIN making them easily prone to fraudsters,” the report added.
To address this, the Bank of Ghana has engaged the financial entities to put in stringent measures to mitigate the impact of this fraudulent activity.
The Bank of Ghana has advised that the sensitization programmes should be in multiple local languages to enable the vulnerable, in particular, and the public in general to
appreciate it.
NOTICE NO. BOG GOV SEC 2023 08 Banks SDIs and PSPs Fraud Report 2022 Trends and Statistics FSD by The Independent Ghana on Scribd
Source: The Independent Ghana