The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Sylvia Owusu-Ankomah, says SIM registration alone will not eliminate fraud in the country, stressing that consumer awareness and protection of personal identification numbers remain critical in tackling the growing menace of mobile-related scams.
According to her, most of the fraud cases currently recorded in the country are driven by social engineering schemes where fraudsters impersonate trusted individuals or institutions to trick users into disclosing sensitive information such as personal identification numbers used for mobile financial transactions.
She explained in a Citi Business News interview that protecting such confidential details remains the most effective safeguard against fraudulent activities, emphasizing that SIM registration cannot fully prevent such incidents.
Her comments come amid government plans to undertake another nationwide SIM registration exercise following Cabinet approval.
The exercise, which will be Ghana’s third major subscriber registration effort, is expected to introduce revisions to the existing regulatory framework governing SIM card registration in the country.
“SIM registration is not going to be a silver bullet that stops fraud. The nature of fraud that we are currently experiencing as a country is mostly on a social engineering scheme. When I say social engineering, these are legitimate individuals who would call you and pretend to be somebody else and, you know, seek information from you and fraudulently, you know, lead you into releasing your personal identity, your personal identity number.
“Your PIN is sacred. So to the extent that you protect your PIN, there shouldn’t be room for someone to defraud you,” she said.
She also highlighted the importance of consumer education, urging subscribers to avoid purchasing pre-registered SIM cards and to ensure that any SIM card they use is properly registered in their name.
According to her, linking SIM cards biometrically to the national identification database helps ensure that individuals can be traced if a number is used for criminal activities, thereby strengthening accountability within the telecommunications ecosystem.
“What the SIM registration will do, however, is to ensure that for every subscriber, your number is biometrically linked to the national ID database, which means that if you are not the user, if I acquire a SIM card, which was acquired by someone else, and I use it, I purchase that SIM and I do not register it directly, any crime that is committed with that particular number will be linked back to me as a user.
“So I do think that there is the need for a lot of consumer education around protecting our SIM, around ensuring that the numbers that we register are authentically ours and that you do not go and purchase a SIM card that has been pre-registered, because it means that if any fraudulent activities undertaken with that number, you will be tracked and you will have to bear the consequences of it,” she added.
Meanwhile, some mobile phone users are urging the government to ensure that the planned SIM card re-registration exercise helps address the persistent problem of mobile money fraud in Ghana.
They say that although the previous nationwide SIM registration drive was intended to curb fraudulent activities on telecom networks, cases of mobile money scams and related cybercrime are still being reported, leading to financial losses for many users.
“The advantage of reregistration is to tighten our security system. If only it will prevent this mobile money scamming and fraud we hear on social media, why not?” Diana Opoku, a trader remarked in a Citi Business News interview.
