The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), has advised customers to only transact business with the power distribution company through its PowerApp, shortcode *226# and its offices.
It warned that customers should not heed payment requests for services such as meter replacement, meter installation, or debt cancellation among others through Mobile Money and bank accounts from fraudsters.
This caution was necessitated by increasing complaints from customers on receiving calls from strange numbers requesting they deposit money into ECG bank or Mobile Money accounts for services.
The Volta Regional General Manager of ECG, Ms. Christina Jatoe-Kaleo explained that her outfit does not operate a Mobile Money account and entreated customers not to give audience to people who would ask them to send money to ECG mobile money account to access ECG services.
She added that these are activities of fraudsters deploying the use of social media and phone calls as their modus operandi.
“They reach out to customers via social media or phone calls and ask them to make payments to certain numbers or bank accounts for their meters to be installed or replaced. In some instances, they claim it’s installation fee and end up impersonating ECG officials like the District Manager, Accountant, or Technical Officer”, she explained.
Ms. Jatoe-Kaleo further indicated that “with the introduction of the ECG cashless and paperless systems, customers are to initiate transactions or access our services through the ECG PowerApp or shortcode *226#.
These systems allow customers to access ECG services and control their payments without any MoMo charge or E-levy, so customers should not fall prey to fraudsters.”
She assured that her outfit is liaising with security agencies to track and bring these fraudsters to book.
“Just last week, some fraudsters issued a fake press release to the GRA Customs Training Academy at Kpetoe and later told them to pay GhC1,140 as an installation fee for three meters to the MoMo number 0508058638. However, the officials of the training academy reported the incident to our office which we later forwarded to the security agencies”, she said.
Ms. Jatoe-Kaleo added that attempted fraud incidents have been reported in Ho, Kpando, Hohoe, Denu, and Sogakope Districts and that “some of the numbers used for such fraudulent activities include 0531807230, 0508790801,0543803302 and 0532752541.”
She appealed to customers to avoid dealing with middlemen, be on the lookout for these illegal activities by fraudsters, and report such incidents to the nearest police station or ECG office.
Ms. Jatoe-Kaleo appealed to the public to help protect ECG poles against bush fires and transformers from people who vandalize them “to steal valuable components since these activities can lead to prolonged outages which will affect both ECG and its customers”.
