MoMo fraud: Victims were socially engineered by scammers – MTN

MTN Ghana has refuted widespread claims that fraudsters are able to withdraw money from customers' Mobile Money (MoMo) wallets without users sharing their personal information.

The response follows viral reports and videos on social media, including one emotional account from a woman who alleged that over GHS 11,000 disappeared from her wallet while she was asleep—despite not revealing her PIN. Another Facebook user also claimed to have lost more than GHS 13,000, which was reportedly set aside for surgery.

But MTN's Senior Manager for Anti-Money Laundering, Compliance and Analytics, Godwin Tamakloe, strongly denied these assertions, stating that internal investigations showed the victims were tricked through social engineering tactics.

“We saw the lady’s video. She said she didn’t do anything and that she was asleep. It’s untrue. That is impossible,” Tamakloe said. “Our investigation revealed she was on a call with the fraudsters for over ten minutes. She also received a fraudulent SMS link which she later shared back with them.”

He added that the same number that called the victim was where the money ended up, confirming that the fraudsters used deceptive methods to extract sensitive information directly from the victim.

Tamakloe advised the public to stay alert and avoid sharing any form of verification or links received via SMS or phone calls, regardless of how convincing the source may seem.