Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has cautioned members of the public to be cautions of fraudulent activities of those it described as loan sharks.
The commission also said that there are many fraudulent ways traders and other members of the public can be defrauded online.
NCC made these disclosures during its telecom consumers sensitization program themed “ “Shine Your Eyes- No Fall Mugu” held on Thursday, at the spare parts Market, Agodi-Gate, Ibadan.
The commission said it has received over 20,000 complaints from those who have fallen victims of the sharp practices of the online fraudsters.
Mr. Ayanbanji Ojo, head, Consumers Affairs Bureau, NCC, said the activities of the loan sharks have caused a lot of people pain with many traders vulnerable to what is going on.
He enjoined telecom consumers to approach their service providers to resolve their complaints adding that if they are unable to resolve it, they should approach the commission by dialling 622 which is toll-free.
He said “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. Today’s programme is different from what we did at Bodija and University of Ibadan.
“Today we are talking about ‘Shine-your-eyes’ which means there are so many financial fraud going on through the telecom and we want to educate our people particularly the traders because most of them are vulnerable to what is going on in the telecom space.
“There have been so many complaints on loss of money, so we need to educate our consumers all the time because we are now in the sustainability of telecommunications industry and if we do not sustain the telecom consumers there is nothing we can not do.
“The complaint we have been seeing so far is over 20 thousand, even this money the loan shark saying a person on your contact list collected loan, how did they get your number, this is the kind of things we are trying to protect and to protect people, we have to educate them, so when people have information they are protected.”
Ojo, however, advised the traders to use strong password in emails, private networking platforms, avoid clicking on any link to avoid theft.
In his remarks, Olanrewaju Ishola, president of Ibadan Motor Parts Dealers Association, thanked the commission for bringing such educative program to the market.
He said market men and women were glad to receive the commission adding that the program was helpful and educative.
He said: “This program is very important. As you can see, our people came out in their numbers to attend. They have listened and have learnt a lot.
