MTN Ghana Introducing “Allow Cash Out” Feature again to curb fraud
MTN Ghana has announced the comeback of the ‘Allow Cash Out’ feature which is to be launched on November 4, 2017. The feature enables mobile money customers to select ‘allow cash out’ before an agent can initiate a transaction.
A Grand Plan to curb Mobile Money Fraud
Speaking at the press briefing, Business Development Manager, MTN, Abdul-Majeed Rufai indicated that mobile money agents should not record subscribers’ numbers in the transaction sheets as they have issued new transaction booklets so as not to disclose numbers of the subscribers.
“We are bringing back that feature that will allow the customer first and foremost select allow cash out, turn it on before an agent can issue the transaction,” he said.
“Henceforth, agents should not disclose subscriber’s number on the transaction sheets. We have issued them transaction booklets not to disclose the number of the person who is loading so that once you go to an agent point, you can’t even get the number, let alone call the number” he added.
Meanwhile, MTN Ghana says sanctions given to some agents caught in mobile money fraud is the decommissioning of their stalls but so far, none has been sent to court.
MTN is also introducing an Agent Registry which is to sanitize agents’ network in the country. Other telcos will have access and contribute to the Agent Registry to prevent agents whose stalls are decommissioned from shifting to another network to operate.
Analytics, Budget & Reporting Manager, MTN, Solomon Hayford mentioned that ‘’Once an agent is blacklisted from MTN or any of the other telcos that information will be on that agent registry and will prevent that agent from coming on board on any other mobile money service providers network, once you are blacklisted you are blacklisted for the whole industry you cannot operate mobile money anywhere else in Ghana any other service provider and that initiative is been ran by the central bank’’.
He, however, added that there are systems been used to monitor and track the activities of fraudsters as well as locate their whereabouts within the country.
How to Activate the Allow Cash-Out Functionality to Enable You Withdraw Money
- Dial *170# on your MTN handset
- Select option 4 to turn on “allow cash-out”
- Confirm “allow Cash-out” with your pin
We hope the introduction of the functionality along with other security measures by MTN will help curb the current #MTNMoMo fraud in the country as well as create more secure transactions on MTN Mobile Money.
