AVOIDING mobile phone scams is now part of our digital lives, especially since fraudsters are continually coming up with new ways to try and trick people who are ignorant.
However, some scams are not always obvious, so it is essential to keep on top of new scams. This is because it is sometimes not easy to recover your accounts when they have been compromised.
Zambia is currently experiencing financial scams through mobile money as the business booms owing to many consumers using digital transactions. Many unsuspecting people have been victims of mobile money scams and have lost money through such vices.
Information from the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has indicated that going forward, cyber related risks are expected to persist, especially on mobile money accounts.
Consequently, Short Message Service (SMS) frauds which are targeted at mobile money users are increasingly drawing the largest attention on consumer awareness and consumer protection.
However, as adoption of Information and Communication Technologies increases coupled with poor digital skills among the country’s population, the diversity and intensity of these risks is expected to persist.
In trying to avoid these scams, it is important to note that every scam has its unique features but generally they share a few common goals and sometimes methods.
Since new types of scams appear regularly, you will have to be prepared. Avoiding these mobile scams requires you to pay attention to what they are asking you to do.
Some of the common mobile money fraudulent tricks are transfer error scheme where you receive a text message indicating that you have received some money. You will then get a phone within that moment where you will be told that it was a wrong transfer and that you should send the money back.
Other tricks include pop up message. When these fraudsters get your number, you will see a pop up message prompting you to enter your mobile money pin. Once you enter your pin and press OK, you have ignorantly transferred your money to them.
It is therefore your responsibility to help authorities fight these vices by playing your part.
While ZICTA has put up measures to curb this vice, such as deactivating Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards reported to be purporting the scams, consumers too have a role to play in curbing mobile money fraud by alert.
Consumers are also advised to avoid responding to scam messages and verify before sending any money to anyone. Consumers are encouraged to be part of the solution and not the problem.
Consumers now have the power to fight mobile scams by reporting numbers sending fraud and scam messages for deactivation by dealing *707#.
Report suspected contacts. Prevention is better than cure, hung up and report suspected fraudulent contacts to ZICTA as this helps to take swift measures to prevent these scams.
Be well informed. To avoid being a victim of mobile money fraud, you need to be well informed about the advice from authorities concerning the scams. You should have their office line to call for verification. If you are well informed, you would not give ear to attention to fraudsters.
With over two million SIM cards being deactivated across Zambia to combat digital fraud as well as mobile money fraud, the country has recorded a decrease of five percent in the total number of active mobile cellular subscriptions during the first half of 2022.
The 2022 Mid-year Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Sector Performance Report released in September this year by ZICTA indicates that the SIM deactivation programme led to a slight decrease in the total number of active mobile cellular subscriptions to 18.7 million subscriptions in the first half of 2022 from 19.7 million subscriptions recorded at the end of June 2021.
“This trend was mainly attributed to the active SIM cards that were deactivated during the first half of 2022. Over two million SIM cards across the country were deactivated in a bid to combat digital fraud.
“The deactivated SIM cards belonged to subscribers who had more than ten SIM cards under one name or had some missing information on their registration details,” ZICTA Manager Corporate Communications Hanford Chaaba said.
As a result of such vices, the value of mobile money transactions recorded a downward trajectory in the first half of 2022 when compared to the performance of these transactions during the same period last year.
Particularly, the value of transactions reduced to K50.4 billion in the first half of from K76 billion in the first half of 2021 2022. This represented a reduction of 33.7 percent.
As another way of dealing with mobile money fraud, ZICTA in February this year issued the deactivation timeline for more than ten SIM Cards registered under one National Registration Card (NRC).
This after ZICTA on January 21, 2022, announced a seven-day ultimatum to all subscribers with non-compliant SIM Card registrations details to regularise their registrations before January 28, 2022.
When dealing with mobile money fraud, do not give your personal or financial information in response to a request that you didn’t expect, Resist the pressure to act immediately and then stop and talk to someone you trust!
