The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has warned the public to be wary of new scamming tricks fraudsters are using to steal thousands of shillings from individuals’ accounts through mobile money transfer platforms.
The DCI, through its social media account, urged Kenyans to be careful when using online transactions:
“The DCI takes this opportunity to warn members of the public against this kind of fraud where people are being duped into online transactions in exchange for cash money, and thereby innocently revealing their pin and phone numbers which enable the fraudsters to swap their lines before cleaning up all their bank, Mpesa, Mshwari and Airtel Money savings. Be warned and stay safe,” warned the DCI.
The warning comes after detectives in Molo, Nakuru County on Thursday arrested a suspected fraudster who had allegedly stolen Sh540,000 from the bank account of an unsuspecting victim through a mobile phone.
DCI said the suspect, Harun Kigera, together with others stole the said amount after swapping the victim’s Airtel Sim card when they were having dinner in Eldoret town.
“While having dinner at a hotel in Eldoret, two men and a lady joined the victim’s table and after a moment, the lady requested the victim to send her Sh2,000 in her Airtel line as she gave him the same amount in cash. The group then left shortly,” DCI said in a tweet.
According to DCI, it was not until the next morning when the victim realised that Sh540,000 was mysteriously missing from his bank account.
Sh400,000 had been transferred to various phone numbers while Sh140,000 moved to the suspect’s bank account.
The suspects had mastered the victim’s PIN as he made the transaction before swapping his line and using it to wipe clean his bank account in the crime that is on the increase across the country.
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