Abstract:
The study examined mobile money service fraud experiences and perspectives on control
practices at University of Education, Winneba. The objectives of the study included to
examine the forms of MoMo fraud strategies experienced by customers of MoMo on
UEW Campus, to examine and classify the main perpetrators of the MoMo fraud among
UEW students as well as the framework for fraud detection put together by the Telco‘s
and consumers on UEW Campus. The study adopted the case study research design. The
purposive sampling technique was used to select the UEW Campus. Using the
convenience sampling technique, five respondents were sampled for the study. The
outcome of the in-depth interviews conducted revealed Mobile money fraud was
committed in various forms such as anonymous calls and text messages from scammers,
fraudsters calling to deceive subscribers that they are to deliver goods from abroad or
from a close relative under false pretexts. Finally, fraudsters sending false cash-out
messages to merchants for authorization of which the physical cash is issued by the
merchant to the fraudster without the equivalent e-cash. Mobile money fraud has been
perpetuated in diverse forms such as mobile money network systems fraud, false
promotion fraud, and reversal of erroneous transactions, fortuitous scams, and mobile
money agents' fraud. Finally, the frameworks that have been used to detect mobile money
fraud include the display of national identifies cards for the transaction, digital
identification systems, the use of firewall to protect mobile money accounts, effective
information technology architecture for mobile money services, reporting of mobile
money fraud to telecoms and the sanctioning of mobile money fraudsters. The study
suggested there should be public education and awareness creation on the activities of
mobile money fraudsters in Ghana by telecommunication companies in conjunction with
the National Communications Authority and the Bank of Ghana. The study therefore,
concluded that the menace of mobile money fraud threatens the integrity of the mobile
money financial services.
Description:
A dissertation in the Department of Communication and Media Studies,
Faculty of Foreign Languages and Communication, submitted to the school of
Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Arts
(Communication Studies)
in the University of Education, Winneba
JANUARY, 2023