Melo News | Thursday, 8th February 2024 | Lusaka
In a significant move to combat fraudulent activities, the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) announced that it took action against a staggering number of scammers. As of December last year, a total of 144,000 scammers were deactivated by ZICTA, effectively putting an end to their malicious operations. This proactive measure by ZICTA demonstrates their commitment to safeguarding the digital landscape and protecting the citizens of Zambia from falling victim to scams and fraudulent schemes.
By swiftly neutralizing these scammers, ZICTA has taken a crucial step towards ensuring a safer and more secure online environment for all.
In the previous year, the authority was also entrusted with the responsibility of addressing a significant number of service-related complaints, totaling 30,734. Among these complaints, a staggering 14,826 were specifically related to fraudulent activities involving mobile money transactions.
This highlights the alarming prevalence of scams and deceit within the realm of mobile financial services, necessitating the authority’s prompt action to protect consumers and maintain the integrity of the system.
During an interview, Hanford Chaaba, the corporate communications manager at ZICTA, revealed that the authority conducted a thorough analysis of the complaints it received. Surprisingly, the most prominent category of complaints was related to mobile money services.
This finding sheds light on the growing importance of mobile financial transactions and highlights the need for improved customer support and service in this sector. ZICTA is now actively working towards addressing these concerns and ensuring a seamless experience for mobile money users across the country.
According to him, our task was to analyze the primary problems that defined the grievances we received, and the majority of them were related to fraudulent messages, irregularities in SIM card registration, and unexplained instances of money disappearing from mobile money accounts.
According to Mr. Chaaba, ZICTA has also documented instances where individuals have reported their mobile phone numbers being blocked or deactivated due to incidents involving stolen phones and compromised social media accounts.
