What do you need to open a mobile money account?

Three things, and all three have to be yours — an active SIM in the phone, your own national ID, and your own presence for the face-matching step. Both providers’ published steps share these three.

You cannot open an account on someone else’s ID, and should not try. The face-matching step exists for exactly this: the photograph on the ID is compared with the person in front of the camera. Even if one were opened, the legal responsibility stays with whoever the ID belongs to.

Be especially wary of one request: if someone says “let me open an account on your ID, nothing will happen”, refuse. Any transaction through that account traces first to you, and explaining it becomes your problem.

It is also worth checking the details and the spelling of your name on the ID first. An error there flows into the account, and correcting it later means doing so in two places separately.

Sources:

• Guide to using a bKash account
• Guide to using a Nagad account