A man believed to be part of a wider syndicate that has been scamming Kenyans their hard-earned monies through mobile transactions has been arrested.
According to the DCI, the suspect was arrested with a gunny bag full of sim cards belonging to the three major communication companies; Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom.
His arrest follows a joint operation led by DCI detectives from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau and investigators from Safaricom after he allegedly conned an MPESA agent an amount of money yet to be specified.
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Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology security officers were also part of the team that arrested the 21-year-old suspect in Juja.
“The fraudster masquerading as an M-PESA customer care attendant called the agent and lured her into dialling some unspecified codes. Before the agent realized that she was in a phoney call, she had already lost cash from her money lending account,” the DCI stated.
“The money was sent to an MPESA account belonging to one of the fraudulently acquired SIM cards, before being transferred to an account at Cooperative bank,” the DCI added.
Besides, the suspect is said to have hacked the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) database and fished out personal details of about 61,617 voters from a county in the Western Kenya region.
DCI detectives and investigators found him with data containing the names of the registered voters, their ID numbers and date of birth.
These details are crucial when one seeks to register or swap a communication line.
“Using the fraudulently acquired personal details, the suspects then contact different wireless carriers and convinces the customer service agents that they are the true owners of the line. Upon successful SIM swapping, the suspects are then granted full access to the victim’s online accounts,” the DCI said.
The suspect is believed to have previously worked for one of Kenya’s mobile phone networks.
