An investigation of mobile money fraud in the Kasoa township

Abstract

For many years, efforts to make financial products and services accessible and affordable to all individuals and businesses, regardless of their personal net worth or company size, (financial inclusion) was a major challenge, globally, due to the high costs involved. In light of this, mobile banking service that allows users to store and transfer money through their mobile phones, has increased the appetite for mobile financial service deployments, especially in developing countries. Mobile money, which is a type of mobile banking, has become extremely popular around the world and most especially in countries where most of its population do not use banks. However, as more businesses and customers launch their money into cyberspace, opportunities for 21st century, tech-savvy thieves also increase. With continuous losses to fraud indicating that fraud is an issue which requires continuous attention, it is important to explore mobile money fraud. This work explored mobile money fraud in the Kasoa Township. Using mixed method approach and stratified and purposive sampling technique, a total of 394 respondents were involved in the study. Data collected were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results from the study revealed that, anonymous calls from fraudsters were the most prevalent type of mobile money fraud. Also, majority of the respondent said they trusted the fraudster as their reason of being defrauded while those who could not be defrauded stated awareness as their reason. Furthermore, loss of customer and business trust, destroying business relationships, clean-up cost, collapse of business, market distortion were major effects of mobile money fraud on mobile money operations. Based on the outcome of the study, it was recommended that; Both merchants and individual subscribers in Kasoa are encouraged to save contact of their Mobile Network Operators on their phones in order to detect fake calls claiming to have come from the Service Provider’s Office to help curb anonymous call related fraud in Kasoa. In addition, mobile money operators/service providers need to intensify customer awareness on mobile money fraud by using local language such as Fante, Ewe, Nzema, Hausa and Ga, with the help of local information centres in the Kasoa Township.