By Kingsley I. Ilechukwu, Bureau Chief, South West
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has taken its awareness campaign to motor spare parts traders in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, south west, on how to avoid telecommunications and electronic fraud(e-fraud) on the national mobile telecommunications network.
The Commission’s Head of Consumer Affairs, Ayanbanji Ojo, said that the commission had received several complaints on financial fraud perpetrated through telecoms platforms. Mr. Ojo spoke at the NCC consumers sensitisation programme held at Agodi-Gate Motor Spare Parts Market, Thursday in Ibadan. The sensitisation programme featured awareness campaign, lectures, questions and answers, to mention a few.
Ojo said the commission decided to bring the sensitisation with the theme; “Shine Your Eyes, No Fall Mugu”, to the market because of the vulnerability of most traders to events and happenings in the telecommunications space.
He urged and advised consumers to constantly keep their Subscribers Identification Module(SIM) cards safe, beware of free gifts internet links, use strong passwords and guard against Identity thefts online.
The NCC’s Head of Consumer Affairs also advised that consumers should always be careful of investment schemes perpetuated on telecoms platforms.
Said he: “The market people are our telecom consumers, without them we can not exist as a regulator. The market people deserve to know what is going on in the telecoms space. If we do not sustain the telecom consumers, the fraudsters will take advantage of them. As telecom regulator, we advise people to go to their service providers to resolve complaints. But if they are disatisfied, they can call NCC Toll Free Number ‘622’ to resolve the issue”.
The President, Ibadan Motor Parts Dealers Association, Moruf Olanrewaju, hailed the efforts of the NCC to shield the consumers from the rising trends of telecoms fraud.
Mr. Olanrewaju noted that telecoms fraudsters adopted new methods from time to time and urged the Commission to increase its routine sensitisation programmes to the market, motor parks and other public gatherings to expose the consumers to new scams before they became victims.
