The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) is cautioning the public to desist from engaging supposed middlemen who request for money from prospective Small and Medium Enterprises in order to approve loans for them.

The Agency in the past few weeks have noticed a re-emergence of a common type of mobile money fraud under the disguise of the GEA COVID- 19 intervention programmes.

In a press release issued and copied to Joy Business, the Agency cautioned the public against such scam and urged Ghanaians to take steps to prevent falling victims.

In their mode of operations, the fraudsters call the applicants impersonating Staff of “NBSSI” and request for their Tax Identification Number (TIN) under the pretense of processing their loan or to help them access more funds as their repayment is due.

Based on this, the targeted applicant is convinced to pay an amount of money to a mobile money account.

The GEA said it deem this act as a regrettable indictment on its dedicated and hardworking Staff.

It therefore emphasised that there are no charges before funds are disbursed.

“All approved charges related to the Loan Programs are paid via GEA approved mediums or directly to the partnering banks of the various Programs (CAP BuSS, Nkosuo and COVID-19 Response Grant)”, it pointed out.

By the communique, the board and management of GEA dissociated it officials from this negative act and advise the public to ignore any calls or messages, making demands of this nature.