George Amoah, General Manager of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the Ashanti West Region, has strongly advised customers to avoid sending mobile money payments to unknown individuals claiming to represent ECG.
These fraudulent requests often involve promises of meter installations, replacements, or debt cancellations.
However, ECG has received multiple complaints from customers who made such payments but never received the promised services.
“They reach out to customers via social media or phone calls and ask customers to make a payment to certain mobile money numbers for their meters to be installed or replaced. In some instances, they claim it’s an installation fee and end up impersonating ECG officials like the District Manager, accountant, or Technical Officer,” Ing. Amoah explained.
Mr. Amoah stressed that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) does not accept payments through mobile money accounts. All verified transactions must be completed via ECG’s official platforms either the ECG PowerApp or the shortcode *226# to ensure safety and authenticity.
He urged the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious calls or messages to ECG offices or the police.
“Just last week, some fraudsters called a customer who had applied for a meter with ECG to pay 900 Cedis for the meter to be installed. The customer paid the money, and the fraudsters demanded an additional 500 Cedis as an installation fee to the Momo number 0508058638.
However, the customer became suspicious and visited our office at Adum for clarification before he realised these fraudsters were not officials of ECG, and they stopped picking up his calls. There was a similar incident at Breman, where an old man paid 2,000 Cedis to fraudsters who also stopped picking up his calls after receiving payment. We are liaising with the security agencies to bring these perpetrators to book,” he said.
He then mentioned how the company reaches out to the customers concerning their services, and also pleaded to the public to deal directly with the company or through their authorized digital platforms without involving any third party.
“Once the quotation is ready, you will receive an SMS from ECG with a unique code telling you how much to pay depending on the service requested. If you want to pay via the ECG PowerApp, you will initiate the transaction yourself, but ECG will not call you that your meter is ready, so send money to someone’s personal account or any mobile money number,”.
Replacement of faulty meters is free, so no customer should pay money to any person who calls or demands payment for a meter to be replaced.”
“With the introduction of the Loss Reduction Project, ECG has enough meters to service customers who pay for service applications and has commenced the replacement of faulty meters to enhance customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and reduce our losses,” he stated.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Joseph Asare
