NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

The rate at which subscribers of mobile money are being defrauded by both criminals and some staff of telecom companies has reached alarming proportions.

The service, which has been touted as the innovation to bring banking to the doorsteps of the unbanked, is turning out to be a monster depriving mostly poor people of their little money.

What is even worrying is that, it is very difficult for security agencies to track down the perpetrators due to the use of fake identities.

The Director in charge of the Cyber Crime Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Chief Superintendent Dr. Herbert Gustave Yankson, told The Finder that, as a result of fake identifies, the unit is able to investigate and prosecute only 10% of cases reported, due primarily to the use of fake identities to register SIM cards.

Photo courtesy of Simon Berry.