Two suspects among them a female student at Egerton University believed to have masterminded the Sh716, 000 sim-swap fraud have been arrested and are set to be arraigned in Kiambu Law Courts today.
Two duo, Sabina Evelyne Nyanumba and her 19-year-old accomplice identified as Paul Nyabero Kilenya were arrested in Njoro, Nakuru County.
They have since been ferried to Mazingira House, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters for pre-charge processing before being arraigned.
They are accused of defrauding a Kiambu couple the money in the budding sim-swap fraud in June this year.
They allegedly made phone calls to the victim from a new number and was made to believe that she was being engaged by a Safaricom customer care operator.
Unknowingly, the woman divulged some personal information, which the fraudsters then used to swindle Sh296, 652 from her Mpesa and Cooperative Bank accounts.
According to the police, the swindlers then accessed the woman’s husband Mpesa and Cooperative Bank accounts, from which they also withdrew a total of Sh420, 570.
Detectives have since recovered the mobile phone believed to have been used in the fraudulent act which will be provided as an exhibit in court.
Service providers like Safaricom and financial institutions among them Equity Bank Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), NCBA and Family Bank are grappling with incessant breaches of their financial security systems that criminals are bypassing with ease fleecing colossal sums of money unabated to the detriment of their clients.
Last year, two university students were charged at Milimani Law Courts for stealing Sh25 million from NCBA Bank through hacking.
They are also said to have attempted to steal an additional Sh190.7 million from the same bank.
The second-year students at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) appeared before Senior Resident Magistrate Carolyne Muthoni. The prosecution claims the offences were committed between October 20 and 22, 2020.
Antony Mwangi Ngige, 23, and Ann Wambui Nyoike, 21, were accused of committing the crime together with others who were not before the court.
Details of the offences state that the suspects colluded to steal Sh25.4 million from NCBA Upper Hill’s head office.
Overwhelmed by numerous cases of hacking, Equity Bank has resulted to sending short text messages to her clients warning against the fraudulent activities.
“Beware of fake calls claiming to be from Equity Bank, asking you to share your PIN, Code or OTP. Please never share these and report such calls for free to 333.” Reads part of the red alert notice by Equity Bank.
In 2019, Geoffrey Oduor Ojow alias Jojo Odukuzi alias Jeff Mzee, was charged with unauthorised access to computer data contrary to the law.
The court heard that Oduor – on diverse dates between November 1, 2018 and January 20, 2019 — unlawfully remotely gained access to Family Bank Limited networks systems thereby infringing their information security measures.
Martin Machere was charged that on January 1, 2019 and January 20, 2019, jointly with others for allegedly conspiring to steal Sh294million from Family Bank.