MTN Mobile Money Uganda Limited is intensifying the fight against mobile money fraud with the involvement of major stakeholders. According to the company’s Managing Director, Mr. Richard Yego, they will hold their first-ever webinar themed “Conquer the Conmen” with key partners, including bankers, customers, financial intelligence executives, and the public on Oct. 13th, 2022, with discussions centered around mobile money fraud.
“This is going to be one of those meetings where we shall discuss issues of mobile money fraud, key drivers, and how this can be deterred going forward,” said Yego. “We all know that for mobile money to contribute to the country’s social economic transformation, it has to be trusted.”
The webinar will be moderated by Robert Kabushenga and aired live on MTN Uganda’s Twitter and YouTube platforms. Confirmed speakers for the webinar included: the Uganda Bankers Association Executive Director; Wilbrod Humphreys Owor, the Managing Director of Airtel Mobile Commerce; Japhet Aritho, Kenneth Natukunda, a seasoned Certified Financial Crime Specialist with the Financial Intelligence Authority and civil rights activist and founder of Makerere Community Church, Pastor Martin Ssempa.
The webinar comes in the wake of complaints from a section of subscribers for allegedly losing colossal sums of money through mobile money fraud.
MTN Mobile Money Uganda has since partnered with other industry players such as the National Payment Systems Providers Association and regulators like Bank of Uganda, and Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to create awareness about the vice via radios and televisions.
The company has also appealed to its customers to follow the golden rules of security when transacting using Mobile Money, not to share their PINs, or One-Time Passwords (OTP) with anyone, not to use simple PIN combinations that can easily be guessed, such as 00000 or 12345 or 33333. In addition, the company stated that the official number to call its customers is 0312120000, and that should avoid any other number.
MTN Mobile Money Uganda partnered with Pastor Martin Ssempa to unveil his campaign known as Stop Bafere. Pastor Ssempa revealed that it was time to fight the rampant theft through digital financial channels. “It is time to act on the growing cases of mobile money theft. We shall no longer simply complain on social media as we get robbed,” he said then.
Although the value of mobile money fraud remains unclear, police believe that the stolen phones could be used to commit some of the mobile money fraud.
Uganda Police Force recorded a 2.4% increase in the case of mobile phone theft to 4,143 cases compared to the previous year, according to the 2021 Uganda Police Force’s Crime Report.
