Tanzania Communications and Regulations Authority (TCRA), in a press release yesterday, issued a warning to the public to be aware of fraudsters using mobile phones.
The Director General of TCRA John Nkoma said more and more conmen, who have forged phone numbers, are using them to blackmail the public to send money.
He said the Authority and security forces are urging the public not to make any orders related to cash text messages, even if the number that appears on their cell phones belongs to one they know.
They should phone again that number in order to ensure that it is the person they know if it is about financial matters.
Additionally, he said, his authority has warned the public against issuing details about their phone numbers or personal information to anyone who called and asked for such information.
The director general said they should provide information to their service provider and the police immediately after losing their phone or Sim card.
Also, he advised the public to inform the police immediately when the phone or network is used in criminal offence, to hunt down criminals.
Alternatively, they should submit their complaints to the authority through e-mail address: compaints@tcra.go.tz or through mobile number 0784 55 82 70.
This newspaper published a story of suspicious calls or messages from a fraudster who posed as police officer or bank staff, trying to get money from the public early this year.
It was a story that implicated a senior staffer with this group of newspapers (name withheld) who was going to lose hundreds of thousands of shillings after members of the group contacted him, asking for money to release his wife purportedly being held at the police station.
According to him, the fraudster identifying himself as a police officer by the name of Frank, sent a short message through a mobile phone owned by the staffer’s wife asking him to send Sh150,000 so that the police would release the wife after being detained.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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