Everybody knows now that on January 21, 2018, Orange Cameroon has lost about CFA1 billion following a vulnerability in its system.
Indeed, that day, the operator’s subscribers were informed of a USSD code (#131*4*2*3*1*25000*1*120*1#) which granted free data. So they took advantage of this many time, creating the above-mentioned loss.
While the company is still quiet and investigating internally, a rumor has sparked on social media. It is said that Orange Cameroon plans to initiate lawsuits against the subscribers who took advantage of the code. Another rumor claims that the company will debit the amount representing the volume of data received from mobile money accounts or airtime balance. Each of those rumors is followed by fake screenshots of SMS allegedly sent by Orange or of alleged online news.
The rumors are false. The only action Orange Cameroon took is to invalidate the code and invalidate the internet balance of the culprits.