Control of fraud on mobile money services in Ghana: an exploratory study

Abstract

Purpose Fraud is a global economic menace which threatens the survival of individuals, firms, industries and economies, and the mobile money service is no exception. This paper aims to explore the main causes of fraud in the mobile money services in Ghana and the measures to combat the menace by the key stakeholders connected to the mobile money services. The paper is motivated by recent reports of numerous fraudulent transactions on the mobile money platform, and the need to clamp down these nefarious transactions with effective and practical measures to sustain the service. Design/methodology/approach A thorough review of existing studies on fraud risk relating to mobile money services was done revealing a paucity of literature on the subject. Primary data were gathered using an interview guide to explore the magnitude of the problem based on the views of employees of mobile money operators, mobile money agents, banking supervisors from Bank of Ghana, employees of partnering banks, employees of National Communications Authority and mobile money subscribers. Findings The study revealed that fraud in mobile money services is caused by weak internal controls and systems, lack of sophisticated information technology tools to detect the menace, inadequate education and training and the poor remuneration of employees. These factors disrupt the growth, and the smooth-running of the services. To curb this menace, a detailed legal code and internal fraud policy should be developed and used by mobile money operators and partner banks. Adequate training for mobile money agents should be encouraged coupled with public awareness campaigns to educate stakeholders especially the mobile money subscribers on the tricks of the fraudsters. Research limitations/implications With the chosen research methodology and limited sample size, the findings may not reflect the views of all the stakeholders connected to the mobile money services. Therefore, future studies on this subject are entreated to use research methods which embrace larger samples to get more details about this menace. Practical implications The study will assist in tackling the mobile money fraud to sustain the service in the foreseeable future. Originality/value This paper contributes to scanty literature on fraud relating to the mobile money services by drawing lessons from a middle-income country.

Determinants of management fraud in the banking sector of Ghana: the perspective of the diamond fraud theory

“…Although, there have been studies on fraud based on various fraud theories (Akomea-Frimpong et al , 2016; Baz et al , 2016a; Reurink, 2016; Said et al , 2017; Muhsin et al , 2018a, 2018b; Akomea-Frimpong et al , 2019; Asmah et al , 2020), the focus had not been on fraud at the executive and management level in banks, especially in the Ghanaian context where “owner CEOs” dominate privately owned banks. In the case of Ghana, few studies focussed on the effect of financial fraud on the financial performance of financial institutions (Akomea-frimpong et al , 2016; Bonsu et al , 2018).…”

Extended Technology Acceptance Model to Predict Mobile-Based Money Acceptance and Sustainability: A Multi-Analytical Structural Equation Modeling and Neural Network Approach

“…Whereas mobile money has stimulated financial inclusion to lots of unbanked Ghanaians, Togo lags behind in its mobile money acceptance rate. Early studies have investigated consumer adoption of mobile money services in Africa (including Togo) [22][23][24]. However, limited studies have probed the factors that contribute to the continued usage of mobile-based money technology and services within the underbanked and unbanked user segment and beyond.…”

Two-Factor Authentication Scheme for Mobile Money: A Review of Threat Models and Countermeasures

“…Spoofing attacks: This attack occurs when the adversary assumes the role of a mobile system administrator and has full access to the system. This is common because most mobile money applications and systems are poorly protected, thus giving opportunity for the attackers to hack them [16,23]. Social engineering attack: This is the manipulation of people to reveal confidential information like mobile money PIN so that the attacker can gain control over the user's mobile money account [19].…”

“…Despite the considerable effort invested in providing a more robust and secure system, most of the existing MMSs still rely on a weak two-factor authentication (2FA) scheme. Various attacks to mobile money's 2FA scheme include man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack, authentication attack, replay attack, identity theft, USSD technology vulnerabilities, brute force attack, social engineering attacks, and denial of service (DoS) attack [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Reaves et al [23] also observed that the current MMS uses nonstandard cryptography, which is easily compromised, thus limiting the integrity and privacy guarantees of the software, giving rise to the threat of forged transactions and loss of transaction privacy.…”