Covid-19: Cell phone fraudsters get busy in pandemic times – Mozambique

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Covid-19: Cell phone fraudsters get busy in pandemic times – Mozambique

1:58 CAT | 02 Jun 2020

File photo: DW

The National Institute of Communications of Mozambique (INCM), the sector’s regulatory body, has announced that cases of fraud using mobile phones have increased “exponentially” during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Typically, “fraudsters will introduce themselves as bank account managers or couriers “, the INCM explained this Monday on its webpage.

The most common schemes persuade victims to access electronic money accounts, which are popular in Mozambique and can be managed even using older mobile phones.

“The INCM warns against these situations,” the webpage stresses, especially when “calls or messages come from strangers”.

Appeal

The entity appeals “to all consumers and users of communications services to be on their guard, and report fraud and other crimes committed via mobile phone”.

Three mobile networks operate in Mozambique, with total subscriptions of around half the population, according to the latest INCM data, which relates to 2017, when Mozambique had around 28 million inhabitants. The population is now estimated at 30 million.

Mozambique had by Monday recorded an accumulated total of 254 cases of Covid-19 infection, with two deaths and 91 patients accounted fully recovered.

Source: Deutsche Welle