Vodacom dismissed 631 workers and contractors for fraud in the year to end-March 2024 after investigating more than 8,000 cases.
“These cases were reported and identified through various channels, including direct reports received from customers, service providers, online reports, referrals from business, the fraud management system and external whistle-blowing,” Vodacom said in their 2023 full year report.
“Contractors as well as strategic and business partners complete separate training relevant to their role and position. The principles also guide the sourcing of suppliers, contractors, and strategic and business partners who are expected to integrate the standards into their businesses,” it added.
It is not uncommon to find the staff and contractors of telcos conniving among themselves and with external fraudsters to defraud the company and or customers.
Ghana
In Ghana, several workers of telcos have been found to work with external fraudsters to engage in SIM swaps that aided the hack of mobile money wallets and bank accounts, leading to the theft of millions of cedis from customers.
In several of those cases, the telcos and banks involved have had to refund the moneys to the affected customers. Meanwhile, some external fraudsters involved have been named, shamed, and jailed, while the staff of the telcos and banks involved are being shielded.
Ghana police, in 2018, complained of how telcos put stumbling blocks in their way, whenever investigations begin to point to telco staff.
In the case of Vodacom, they have reported sacking 631 workers and contractors for fraud, but it is not clear how many of those workers were actually named, shamed and prosecuted. Similarly, in Ghana, telcos claim the often sack recalcitrant workers, but those criminals are never named and shamed.
