Tim_vb
Expert Member
A colleague in my office was recently hit by a scam where they raise their (contract) account spend limit via the MTN app then buy a bunch of data/airtime for other numbers. The scam starts with a call to the target about an urgent SIM swap that must be stopped right now by clicking on a link send by MTN via SMS. Sure enough there is a MTN SMS sent to their phone with a link to verify ID, target clicks on the link and the scammers have access to the contract account via MTN app. Then they raise the account spend limit by R9k and immediately buy R7k airtime for other MTN numbers. All of this is done in under two minutes. This scam relies on the target not having the MTN app already registered and linked on their device
From the outside it seems like MTN has made no effort to secure subscribers accounts
From the outside it seems like MTN has made no effort to secure subscribers accounts
- MTN has no pattern matching to prevent fraud
- MTN sends their "validation link" to the target customer to validate the logon request but doesn't check that the device opening the link is the same device that logs on the app