Scams reported to police involving identity theft or the loss of personal/banking information have cost Kenyans over million of shillings this year, and this figure is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.
Scammers can empty victims’ bank accounts, take out tens of thousands in bank loans under victims’ names, and purchase expensive things under ‘no-repayments for 12 months’ schemes.
Lost personal information also leaves victims more susceptible to future scams. Scammers will use the victim’s personal information to seem more convincing in cold calls.
Recently, Anthony Mugo, 57, discovered that someone unknown to him had transacted more than Sh2.7 million using a Sim card associated with his identity card over the previous six months.
Mugo stepped into the Kilimani Branch of Equity Bank on April 25 looking for a loan, only to be told he couldn’t acquire one because he had been adversely categorized by a credit reference bureau (CRB) as a defaulter. He had not applied for a loan and was unaware of this.
Dismayed, he contacted a CRB agent over WhatsApp at 10:27 am the next day during a conversation that lasted until 11:10 am, only for Mugo to learn that he had defaulted on a Sh6,742 loan granted via Fuliza (a credit facility offered by M-pesa to clients with insufficient funds to complete a transaction).
“You are listed because of a loan default with NCBA Bank… For you to be delisted, you have to make a complete payment plus a Sh2,200 clearance fee. That is 6743+2,200,” the response stated.
The CRB agent saw something was wrong and informed Mugo that the loan had been wiped off due to a mistake.
“All you have to do now is pay a Sh2,200 clearance fee,” the agent said. Mugo decided not to pay the fee. A few hours later, he was at the Junction Mall branch of NCBA Bank on Ngong Road. He, however, did not manage to have his name cleared. “I was told to contact Safaricom. In December, Safaricom cleared all the other numbers that had been linked to my ID and after checking using the USSD code *106#, it was clear that only my current line remained in the system,” Mugo said.
In the presence of this reporter, he dialled *106#, and Safaricom returned only one number. Mugo went into a Safaricom store in the Junction Mall and explained his situation.
However, between April 26 and May 8, he only received four messages assuring him that his problem had been acknowledged and would be resolved.
On April 30, he received two more mails, noting that his enquiry had been logged under ticket numbers 1-5ZDEDWEU and 1-5ZDJ4VVB. His matter would be addressed in 48 hours, according to both communications. Then came two weeks of stillness.
Uneasy, Mugo went to the Safaricom offices on May 12 and was given the specifics of the transactions from October 1, 2021 to May 11, which he found troubling.
The fraudster had really traded a total of Sh2,726,667 during the previous six months, in addition to the Sh6,743 loan. Between January 9 and April 5, more than 19 transactions were executed.
Deposits of Sh395,489 were made in eight of the transactions, with the same amount removed in 11 transactions.
On January 18, the suspected fraudster deposited Sh240,430 in four separate transactions and then withdrew Sh240,374 in four separate transactions.
Some of the ways scammers obtain personal or banking information are by phishing emails and text messages which impersonate banks or utility providers seeking your login details, fake online quizzes and surveys, fake job advertisements, remote access scams in which the scammer has direct access to everything on your computer, sourcing information about you from social media platforms and direct requests for scans of your driver’s license or passport, often in the course of a dating and romance scam.
Communication Authority has been pushing for Kenyan Telcos to register all its users.
The Regulator has been calling telcos Safaricom, Telkom and Airtel to update their subscriber information.
CA is aiming to tame the issue of fraudulently registered SIM cards means exactly that: their fake owners use them to commit fraud, or crime.