MoMo fraud: Victims were socially engineered by scammers – MTN

MTN Ghana has stated that fraudsters cannot withdraw money without user information. This statement follows a viral video and social media posts about stolen funds from Mobile Money (MoMo) wallets.

In one video, a woman cried as she claimed scammers took over GHS 11,000 from her account. She insisted she never shared her PIN with anyone. Another Facebook user reported losing over GHS 13,000 meant for surgery. She also claimed she had not disclosed any sensitive information.

Godwin Tamakloe, MTN's Senior Manager for Anti-Money Laundering, responded to these claims. He disputed the victim's assertion that her funds vanished while she was asleep. After an internal investigation, he revealed that the victim fell for a social engineering scam.

Tamakloe explained that the woman was on a call with fraudsters for over ten minutes. She received SMS messages containing links sent by the scammers. The victim inadvertently shared this link back with them.

Interestingly, the same number that called her received the stolen money. Tamakloe emphasized that users can be socially engineered into giving out their information.