Mobile Money : Beware of Fraud!

With developments in technology, thieves are also coming with new pranks to exercise their trade. The latest in town is that thieves equipped with a commercial sim card, hang around mobile money transfer kiosks, to defraud people as they carry out their transactions. The thief stands so close that he is able to hear the client communicate the number to the kiosk operator; as the client calls out the number orally, the thief rapidly types it in his phone and sends a messages before the kiosk operator such that by the time the operator finishes the operation, the message sent by the thief must have been confirmed by the client. It is only after a short while and upon verification that the victim realizes that the number to which he or she confirmed the transaction was not that of the kiosk operator. By this time the thief would have left the scene already.
This paper is inspired by the experience of a lady who witnessed another lady being defrauded of the sum of FCFA 200,000. The story goes that the lady was at the kiosk to do a transaction herself but noticed a guy was standing so close and was fidgeting with the phone as the lady communicated her number to the kiosk operator. The lady repeatedly asked to be given the money as she had already confirmed it on her phone and received a message. However, the kiosk operator kept on saying she had not received the message in her own phone. After a long while when the operator expected that the message should have come to her phone, she asked the lady to show her the message on her phone. It was only then she discovered the confirmed message was not from the phone of the kiosk operator but an unknown number. This is when the lady discovered the boy who was standing as if he was waiting for his turn to carry out a transaction, had left the scene and immediately suspected he was responsible for the fraud.
It is therefore necessary to write out one&rsquo...