Mobile money robberies: Inside Ghana’s rising cybercrime wave

By Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith and Prinsella Vera Aidoo

For Diana, a small-scale entrepreneur producing shea butter products in Bolgatanga, in the Upper East Regional capital, it was supposed to be a day of triumph.

She had closed her shop with GH¢2,000 in earnings – enough to replenish her raw materials for the week. Confident in her mobile money wallet, she left the funds there for safekeeping.

Thirty-seven minutes later, her account was empty. Three withdrawals – GH¢22, GH¢1,950, and GH¢35 – drained her balance.

“Mind you, the number that took the money was a Telecel line with no registration on it,” Diana told The Fourth Estate. “I still don’t understand how it happened.”

Her ordeal is part of a widening crisis in Ghana, where mobile money and digital finance – once hailed as drivers of financial inclusion – are now increasingly exploited by cybercriminals.

The Cyber Security Authority (CSA) reports a staggering rise in cyber fraud losses: from GH¢2.4 million in the first quarter of 2024 to GH¢14.94 million in just the first half of 2025. Reported cyber incidents – ranging from blackmail to unauthorised access – also grew, from 1,317 in 2024 to 2,008 in the first half of 2025.

Since 2019, Africa had lost more than $3 billion to cyber fraud. In Ghana alone, the banking, specialised deposit-taking institutions and payment service providers sector recorded combined fraud losses of GH¢88 million in 2023. Of that, cyber and email fraud accounted for GH¢10.5 million.

Cybersecurity expert, Albert Naa warns that the scale is systemic, adding that Ghana’s rapid digital transformation is great for growth. But the “convenience has come with significant risks.”

Inside EOCO’s investigations

The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), Ghana’s frontline agency against financial crime, says the sophistication of attacks has escalated.

“We have one to many. If I say one to many, you can have one person being a victim of normal fraud. That same person being a victim of account takeover by phishing,” Assistant Staff Officer (ASO), Seidu Osumanu, Digital and Crypto Forensic Expert, Anti Money Laundering Unit, EOCO.

One of the most common methods is SIM swapping. Fraudsters forge Ghana cards to obtain duplicate SIMs, hijack mobile money accounts, and intercept all transaction alerts.

“They will do a fake Ghana card, and then they are able to use it as the basis to swap the SIM,” Digital and Crypto Forensic Expert, Anti Money Laundering Unit of EOCO, Assistant Staff Officer (ASO), Seidu Osumanu revealed.

“Yours will be blocked, so you will go to MTN to report, and before they will restore your SIM for you, your money is gone,” he added.

Beyond SIM swaps, fraudsters also use fake websites that mimic legitimate platforms, luring victims into entering their details. Others deploy social engineering, persuading unsuspecting users to reveal sensitive information.

Perhaps most alarming is insider collusion. “Insiders have been playing a very major role in aiding cyber fraud,” Naa said. “People who work at MTN who have privileged information… they can get information about …subscribers, or people whose balances are at a certain level.”

A regulatory vacuum

The rapid growth of Ghana’s fintech sector has outpaced its regulatory frameworks. A recent report by the African Union High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows, noted glaring gaps in oversight of mobile money providers, microfinance institutions, and fintech firms.

“Despite the rising uptake and growth rate of non-banks, their regulation is not adequately standardised,” the report said. “This situation prevails despite the fact that most cross-border trade is now largely facilitated through electronic and mobile money transfer systems.”

The absence of robust oversight has created an ecosystem ripe for exploitation.

For EOCO, timing is everything.

“Our recovery is largely dependent on the time the crime was reported,” Officer In-Charge of Anti-Money Laundering Unit, EOCO, Staff Officer, Pascal Mensah, explained. “If …the victim reports immediately, we can quickly freeze accounts. But if it takes a while and they have dissipated the [funds], we will have to do asset tracing,” he said, adding that, “With MoMo, you can do that within one hour. With banks, it can take days. So, if the victim reports in two days, then we can track and stop it somewhere.”

Artificial intelligence has supercharged scams. Fraudsters now deploy AI-powered deepfakes and more convincing phishing attempts. According to Mr. Naa, AI is making cybercrime more accessible and sophisticated. He noted that it has enabled social engineering attacks that are harder to detect.

Cryptocurrency further complicates matters. The EOCO officials said many criminals now cash out through digital coins to evade detection.  

They said most of the criminals are using digital coins to take their funds out of the system [Ghana] because of the anonymity. They admitted that whenever the money gets into that system, investigating it becomes a bit difficult.

The officials also revealed that some of the suspects EOCO has dealt with, moved their money to crypto. “Now we are looking for them to prosecute them,” one of the EOCO officials revealed.

Weak cooperation with telecoms

Law enforcement agencies say their work is hampered by weak collaboration with telecom operators. Telecom companies are accused of dragging their feet on fraud reports.

“They want to protect their market, and they don’t want people to know that their system is vulnerable,” the EOCO official said. “Even right now, let somebody steal your mobile money, and if it’s Telecel, and you call them, they will pretend as if they are working on it,” ASO Seidu Osumanu.

Tracking becomes even harder when stolen funds are moved between networks, according to EOCO.

Human faces behind the numbers

Behind every statistic is a story of personal loss. The Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association, Albert Sore, paid for shirts via Facebook and WhatsApp only to be blocked by the fake seller.

“I decided to take a chance, but when the parcel never came, I knew I had been defrauded,” Mr. Sore told The Fourth Estate.

Gerard Asagi, a teacher, lost US$1,200 in cryptocurrency to Telegram scammers who tricked him into exposing his wallet. “Life left me at the time,” he recalled. “I learned my lesson that day.”

These stories show how cyber fraud devastates both livelihoods and trust in Ghana’s financial system.

The AU report places Ghana’s challenges within Africa’s wider struggle against illicit financial flows. The African Development Bank estimates the continent loses $580 billion annually through leakages – including $90 billion in illicit flows, $275 billion in multinational profit-shifting, and $148 billion from corruption.

Ironically, the same mobile money systems hailed for driving financial inclusion – now used by 30% of sub-Saharan adults – are also conduits for fraud. In 2023, GSMA estimated mobile money contributed $190 billion to sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP. Yet, the absence of robust safeguards threatens to undo those gains.

Fixing Ghana’s broken system

To address the menace, experts suggest:

Stronger regulation and oversight of telecoms and fintech companies, with mandatory upgrades to security infrastructure; real-time inter-agency cooperation to track suspicious transactions instantly, not days later; public education campaigns to arm ordinary Ghanaians against phishing, SIM swaps, and online scams; and automated monitoring systems to freeze fraudulent transactions before funds vanish.

“The companies should upgrade. They should beef up security,” Mr. Naa said, warning that without stronger systems, criminals will always remain a step ahead.

EOCO officials agree that without systemic change, their fight is unwinnable. The surge in fraud losses – from GH¢2.4 million to nearly GH¢15 million in a year – is not just a warning sign. It is an indictment of a digital economy growing faster than its safeguards.

Unless Ghana acts decisively, mobile money could shift from being a tool of empowerment to a playground for predators.