MTN Uganda loses billions to mobile money fraud involving employees

Ugandan news sources reported this week that African mobile giant, MTN, reportedly lost billions of Ugandan Shillings from its mobile money service in a fraud case involving the operator’s employees. Though information about the fraud and the investigations around it is only surfacing this week, the fraud itself is reported have occurred in 2011.

MTN employees working together with the fraudsters outside the company apparently exploited some holes in the verification system of the mobile money service to syphon money out of the company. The exact amount of the billions of shillings lost to the fraudsters has not been disclosed. At the current bank rate, a billion Ugandan Shillings is equivalent to about US $410,000.

MTN launched the mobile money transfer (MMT) service in Uganda in March 2009 in partnership with Fundamo, a startup that was eventually acquired by VISA last year. MTN launched in 1994 and operates in 21 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

[Source ugandapicks.com ]

2 comments

  1. DuwayneGoddard

    i guess no Technews in Zimbabwe to write about?

  2. beware

    If i was to be asked which mobile service i think is vunerable to fraud in Zimbabwe  Ecocash would be tops. The fact that you can only view 5 transactions in itself is reason for concern. What ifd someone from the inside steals people’s monies and they are hidden beyond the 5 transactions? You will never know. Kingdom Cellcard is better, but still vulnerable, like one employee did here: http://www.chronicle.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27215:bank-employee-up-for-fraud&catid=46:crime-a-courts&Itemid=138

    With Ecocash, you do not get a bgank statement or transaction history beyond just 5 transactions. in the cellcard case, the fraud was unravelled because the guy had a bank statement and a bank account. If that had happened with Ecocash the customer would have been told that he used the money and Econet would not budge.

    If you were planning using ecocash for mobile payments, forewarned is forearmed. Dont use it until you have the option to get a transaction history similar to a bank statement, or until ecocash is linked to a bank account.

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