MTN, South Africa’s second-biggest mobile phone operator, is trying to distance itself from a fake Twitter account that was getting a lot of attention.
MTN fell victim to an imposter that added a barely noticeable underscore to @MTNza and then started insulting MTN subscribers.
MTN said on Wednesday that it has noted a parody social media account that masquerades as an official MTN twitter account.
“The reported response from this account to an MTN customer, which MTN regards as insensitive was not sanctioned by MTN. We urge our customers to disregard this Twitter handle as it is not an official MTN Twitter handle but a parody account that was opened and shut down in 2016,” said MTN in a statement.
Satirical Twitter accounts are nothing new.
Approximately six parody accounts purporting to be MTN Twitter handles have been opened since 2013. Twitter has suspended some of these accounts while others became inactive after being discovered.
The company said it has contacted the customers that have received feedback from these accounts and advised of that fact.
This week, we also identified another parody account called https://twitter.com/MTNCare_ZA which has been reported to Twitter for suspension.
Also read: SA’s MTN Plan to Spend R3.9 billion to Tackle Lucrative Iranian Broadband Market
Iran is one the most remaining untapped emerging markets.
The country has more than 80 million people that are highly educated and seeking to be connected to the vast digital world.
The country’s economy is being spurred by vast natural resource endowment.
MTN’s growth in Iran has been impressive to watch.
In the first half of 2017, MTN Irancell increased total revenue by 19,3% benefiting from encouraging data revenue trends.
South African-based MTN want to increase its footprint and investment in Iran.
The telco has signed a non-binding preliminary agreement to invest approximately R540 million into Iranian Fixed Broadband Provider, Iranian Net, for a 49% stake, with further investments of approximately R3,4 billion in both equity and loans to facilitate Iranian Net meeting its rollout targets over the next five years.
MTN said in a statement that the preliminary agreement remains subject to finalising suitable transaction agreements.
