Vodafone Investigates 22 M-PAISA Grievances

Vodafone Fiji has launched an investigation over several complaints following the disbursement of the $200 "Back-to-School" assistance on Monday.

As of yesterday, Vodafone Fiji has confirmed investigating 22 reports lodged with them since the disbursement of the assistance.

This number is likely to increase.

Issues faced by parents included money deposited into their account "rolling back" to Vodafone as a text message had alerted them after the deposit was made.

Anticipating buying her children's back-to-school materials yesterday, Alumita Sokomaiwasa travelled from Wavu Village in Vaturova, Cakaudrove, to withdraw the back-to-school assistance in Labasa town.

Ms Sokomaiwasa has seven children to send to school this year, and $1200 was deposited in her account.

At 11.46am on Tuesday, from that initial $1200 deposited in her account, $400 rolled back, as the automatic message from Vodafone indicated to her.

"I wanted to come and buy all my children's stuff today (yesterday)," Ms Sokomaiwasa said.

"I travelled far, and oneway fare was $9.50.

"Now, I have to come back next week to check if the remaining balance comes back.

"What is happening?"

Another parent, Kinisimere Naitu, 47, was notified that she had a successfully received $200 for her one child.

But on Wednesday, she claimed she was left with $3.

“I received a message from the automatic reply that $200 was rolled back. Rolled back where?,” she claimed.

Vodafone-M-PAiSA-Fiji

Ministry of Finance 

Minister for Finance Biman Prasad yesterday confirmed that some technical issues were encountered that led to these instances recently.

“If there are issues that people have of maybe the numbers are wrong where some people are claiming that it bounces back then they should immediately contact the Ministry of Finance and they will resolve those issues,” Mr Prasad said.

“What we can assure the people and parents, most feedback we are getting from the parents is that they have safely withdrawn their $200,” he said.

“Many of them are already shopping, many of them are finding this assistance a very timely one.”

Vodafone 

In response to queries yesterday, Vodafone Fiji said the money was safe in the M-PAiSA wallet with a PIN code that should not be shared with anyone. Vodafone cautioned M-PAiSA users that scammers may attempt to exploit large disbursements of money.

“There have been 22 reported cases as of January 11, made to Vodafone Fiji during this pay-out and are under investigation at this stage. Vodafone advises customers to also report any M-PAiSA-related fraudulent cases to Fiji Police.

“Fraudsters have faced legal repercussions in the past for unauthorised financial transactions affecting M-PAiSA accounts. They scam customers by calling and asking for the customer’s M-PAiSA PIN. Scammers use all types of enticing messages to lure people to release their M-PAiSA PIN and personal information.”

Vodafone reminds users never to share the M-PAiSA PIN or OTP sent to their mobile phone with anyone to protect their account from scammers and fraudsters.

It confirmed that payments started on January 8, successfully delivered to over 190,000 registered recipients.

“Over $37 million has already been disbursed and many have begun shopping for school supplies. Cashless payments can be made at over 2400 business outlets using M-PAISA payment Fiji-wide.”

How does Mpaisa work?

M-PAiSA is a Vodafone Money Transfer Service where you send and receive money using your Vodafone or Inkk mobile phone.

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