The Volta Regional Directorate of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has cautioned its customers to be wary of illegal activities by fraudsters and scammers, who have deployed criminal schemes to wit crime.
The modus operandi of the fraudsters is to coerce unsuspecting customers to commit various monies to a fake ECG mobile money account as a prelude to access services of the Company including meter replacement, meter installation, debt cancellation, among others.
This caution from the power distribution company has come at a time when some of its customers have complained about receiving calls from strange numbers to deposit money into fake ECG bank or mobile money accounts.
Ms Christina Jatoe- Kaleo, General Manager of ECG in the Volta Region, in reaction to the issue insisted ‘ECG does not operate mobile money accounts and service with clients,’ and urged them to be extra vigilant.
She said these fraudsters use social media or call customers to make payments to designated bank accounts or mobile mo
ney numbers for services from the Company.
‘In some instances, the fraudsters deploy impersonation schemes to outwit clients by posing as District Managers, Accountants or Technical Officers, to demand payments for installation fees among others,’ she added.
Ms Jatoe-Kaleo indicated that, ‘With the introduction of the ECG cashless and paperless systems, customers are to initiate transactions or access services through the ECG PowerApp or shortcode *226#,’ without any Momo accounts interface.
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 these fraudsters.
The ECG General Manager bemoaned the rate at which illegal activities by these fraudsters are gaining momentum and assured the public that the Company is liaising with the 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 installation fee for three meters to a particular momo number, with the incident reported to the ECG and the Police.’
The General Manager further indicated that such cases have been reported in Ho, Kpando, Hohoe, Denu and Sogakope Districts and some of the numbers used for such fraudulent activities include 0531807230, 0508790801, 0543803302 and 0532752541, which has been made available to state security.
She appealed to customers to avoid patronising middlemen, when they need service from the power company and be vigilant about the activities of these nation-wreckers and particularly report such incidents to the nearest Police station or ECG offices.
Ms. Jatoe-Kaleo further appealed to members of the public to help protect ECG poles against bushfires and transformers from people, who vandalize them to steal valuable components since these activities could lead to prolonged outages, which would affect both the Company and its customers
Source: Ghana News Agency