MTN Group today alerted the public to beware of a new scam where the Group’s Chairman of the Board, Mcebisi Jonas, is being impersonated to solicit money.
Today the group announced that it will be commencing an Internal Audit and Forensic process in an effort to weed out an organised crime syndicate after been made aware of incidents related to the false solicitation of funding under the guise of requests for sponsorship towards the company’s Corporate Social Investment (CSI) projects.
“We have been made aware of an increasing number of incidents where our Group Chairman of the Board, Mcebisi Jonas, is being impersonated or false representatives reach out to the public requesting funding towards MTN foundation projects. This matter has been escalated with our Internal Audit and Forensic team and an investigation is underway” said Nompilo Morafo, MTN Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer.
“We urge the public to not fall prey to scammers and report all suspicious and unsolicited phone calls, emails and WhatsApp communication received to us.”
Mcebisi Jonas, MTN. Image Source -GH Gossip
How the scam works
The fraudsters contact targeted victims, introducing themself as an MTN representative and requests that an urgent EFT payment is made to a specific recipient towards MTN opco foundations projects.
The red flags the public should be aware of
Emails or phone calls asking for personal details and/or urgent payments are suspicious
Links or attachments that you haven’t specifically asked for are suspicious
Links within suspicious emails (do not click on these)
Strange email addresses and phone numbers (verify the contacts details)
Fictitious email domains are a giveaway. For example, using a “0” (zero) rather than a capital “O” (the letter) or other substitutions, such as using a lower case “r” and “n” (rn) in place of the letter “m”.
What to do should fraudsters contact you
MTN urges the public to not click on any WhatsApp messages or emails with unusual requests. All scam attempts including phone calls received from unregistered numbers should be reported to the Group’s Internal Audit and Forensic Services team on [email protected]
