LUSAKA, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Zambia on Thursday said it has launched an audit of the country's mobile phone operators following increased number of people losing money through bogus mobile money transaction services.

The Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA), its technology and communication regulator, said the audit has been necessitated by the recent fraudulent Short Message System (SMS) messages by which innocent subscribers have been duped into sending money to fraudsters.

Ngabo Nakonde, the regulators manager in charge of corporate communications, said the regulator was also working with the central bank and the police with regard to the other non-technical aspects of investigations into the fraudulent activities on mobile money platforms.

"These fraudulent SMS scams are not unique to Zambia as they have also occurred in other markets. ZICTA would like to remind the general public that digital financial services remain secure and functional as they have great security features and good privacy policies," she said.

The regulator, she added, has also initiated a vigorous SMS awareness campaign to ensure that consumers do not fall victims of the suspected fraudulent messages.

The regulator has since asked mobile phone operators to develop a mechanism that will be used for sharing information among each other about the offenders, including agents, so that they could be blacklisted from the network and to block all numbers registered under the names of suspected fraudsters. Enditem