Alarm as 24 Safaricom staffers sacked over fraud and sim swapping
At total of 24 staff members of the telecommunication giant, Safaricom PLC were summarily dismissed over engagement in fraud and sim-swapping conduit.
According to recent sustainability report of the year ending March 2022 released earlier this week, out of the 27 employees under investigations, 24 of them were dismissed over complicity into the crimes.
“A majority of the cases; 10 were related to SIM-swap cases. This was up from four the previous year. Eight others involved a breach of policy; 1 each for data privacy and Negligence of duties, while seven involved asset misappropriation, underlining the challenge of fighting the vices,” the report shows in part.
In the previous year, 28 staffers were dismissed over fraud-related
The telco reported 30 fraud cases in the year 2019, 35 in 2020, 36 in 2021 and a total of 27 employees faced disciplinary action in the last financial year ending March 2022 with three of them given disciplinary warnings.
However, the telco said they have since established fraud management teams specialising in analytics, customer awareness and process reviews to drive safety for clients through accelerated use of machine learning and automation, continuous fraud awareness and process reviews.
“We continued to conduct training for staff in fraud awareness sessions, together with fraud training for our M-Pesa agents, dealers and suppliers. We also continued to help customers safeguard themselves from fraud by educating them on how to protect themselves on the network by safeguarding and protecting their data and sensitive information.” The reports add.
A scammer typically calls posing as a mobile network company employee in the alleged SIM card exchange fraud. When a mobile user answers the call, the scammer requests critical information from them, including their national ID number, mobile money PIN, SIM card PIN, and other information.
In order to access all SIM services, including mobile money transfers, mobile and internet banking, voice calls, SMS, data services, and any other services available through the SIM, the scammer switches the SIM card using the information they have obtained.
