Vodafone Fiji has reassured concerned citizens that its M-PAiSA platform and M-PAiSA user accounts are secure and hack proof from scammers and fraudsters if customers are careful not to expose or reveal their account PIN and OTP to other third parties.
This comes after concerns were raised on social media by some M-PAiSA users claiming that their money was withdrawn from their account without their knowledge.
Vodafone says when a customer registers for their M-PAiSA, they never create a customer’s account PIN nor store the customer account PIN in a visible format in their system and neither do their staff.
Therefore, any insinuation that any staff of Vodafone is either directly or indirectly involved in facilitating unauthorized transactions from a customer’s account is false.
Vodafone says that they have been advising customers through various mediums including TV and radio talk-back shows not to share their OTP and PIN with unknown persons and callers even if they claim to be from Vodafone or the police.
Vodafone says they have investigated several such claims and found cases where customers were honest enough to admit that they had mistakenly revealed the OTP to an unknown caller or someone claiming to be from Vodafone.
In some cases, the accounts alleged to have been hacked or accessed by a close family member who may have taken advantage of their Pin.
To further enhance M-PAiSA account security, Vodafone have upgraded its M-PAiSA App back in July 2022 and has advised their customers to update their M-PAiSA app to the upgraded version for added security reasons.
They say approximately 80% of users have updated their app and the remaining 20% are being sent reminders by SMS messages from Vodafone to do so before 15th Jan, when the older versions of the app will no longer be accessible.
Vodafone says scammers will continue to find new and innovative means and social engineering tools to commit fraud and scams, customers are reminded never to reveal their PIN and OTP to any third party to ensure their account always remains secure.
