A police boss in Nairobi is the latest victim of a sim-swap fraud syndicate that has been using technology to con Kenyans of their money held in banks and telecommunication firms.
Mr Peter Mwanzo, in charge of Kasarani police division, yesterday narrated in court how he lost Sh600,000 within six hours through the syndicate.
“Within less than six hours Sh597,100 had been transferred from my Equity Bank account to my M-Pesa account and later sent to a number unknown to me and withdrawn in Mulot, Bomet County. How this happened is still a mystery to me,” said Mr Wanzo.
However in a twist of events through the help of Criminal intelligence Unit and interrogation of Safaricom staff, he learned that his Sim card been swapped.
“Someone used my Sim card remotely. This is madness and it seemed easy for the third party to use my Sim card,” he testified.
He urged the court to order for the refund of the money and the telecommunication firm to take responsibility for the fraud, for keeping a system that can easily be manipulated and abused by criminals.
The court has summoned Equity Bank, Safaricom and Airtel legal teams to testify in the matter
Kenyan Business Feed is the top Kenyan Business Blog. We share news from Kenya and across the region. To contact us with any alert, please email us to [email protected]