Millions lost as mobile phone conmen make comeback

By JOHN OYWA

The afternoon wind gushed through the crowded Muthurwa market in downtown Nairobi, splashing dust on the weary-looking traders. Seated at her stall, Monica Kanyi was restless as she spoke on her phone. "You want my identity card number and full names?" she asked happily.

She then knelt to pray as curious colleagues sought to know the source of her sudden joy. "God has finally answered my prayers. I have won Sh1 million. It is a miracle," she exclaimed.

The caller, claiming to be an employee of a leading mobile phone company told Mrs Kanyi to urgently send Sh20,000 to enable him process the jackpot. Excited, the mother of six quickly borrowed the money from friends and sent it to the ‘manager’ through M-Pesa. It was indeed a miracle because she had never participated in the said promotion.

Gullible Kenyans

But the dream of becoming a millionaire quickly evaporated after the caller, passing himself off as an employee of a phone company, went mteja (off air) as soon as he received the Sh20,000. It was only after she recovered her wits and went to report the incident at a local police station that she realised she had been conned.

"I was told there was no such promotion. I almost fainted," she told the Standard On Saturday.

As the heart broken woman struggles to repay the Sh20,000 debt, police say her predicament is a mere case study in a new wave of a complex mobile phone fraud in which criminals have conned gullible Kenyans of millions of shillings.

The fraudsters believed to members of a cartel, mostly inmates at various prisons, have been sending thousands of short text messages to mobile phone subscribers, telling them how they have won millions of shillings in non-existent promotions and lotteries.

Many have been tricked into giving their personal details, including M-Pesa registration and bank accounts, only to discover later that their accounts have been emptied. In their latest tricks, the fraudsters send fake M-Pesa alerts to unsuspecting subscribers to make it appear they have received certain amounts of money by mistake. The criminals then call immediately requesting that the amount be sent back to them.

This week, a journalist received M-Pesa alert. "The alert said I had received Sh2,930 from him and that my new account balance was now Sh8,930. He called immediately to say he had sent the money by mistake," said the journalist.

He added: "I doubted him. I asked him whether he was calling from Kamiti or Naivasha Maximum prisons and he quickly disconnected the phone." Electronic crime experts say the fraudsters develop an M-Pesa message template that look like a genuine alerts which they send to several subscribers. A cyber crime investigator, Mr Silvanus Sewe of Global Forensic Services, says it’s easy to identify fake M-Pesa alerts.

"Just check your balance and see if any money has been added. If in doubt, check with the Safaricom officials before wiring back any money."

A Nairobi resident, Mr Mark Bosire says he has been receiving the fraudulent messages almost three times daily. One of the messages read: Furahi na Safaricom Promotion. Over Sh50m to be won in three weeks. You have won Sh100,000. Fore details, call (number not reproduced here).

When he called one of the numbers, a man who claimed to be a manager with Safaricom Ltd started asking for his personal details and Sh5,000 facilitation fee.

When he dismissed the "manager" as a criminal, the conman hit back: "You are the criminal; I will shoot you on the head right now!"

Some of the fraudsters call to say how they been sent to kill their victims. "We have been sent to finish you. We are almost there. But we can abandon the idea if you pay us Sh50,000," one caller once told a Kisumu resident, Ms Mary Adhiambo. The police later told her the threats emanated from criminals at Kamiti Maximum Prison.

Safaricom and Kenya Prison Service last year confirmed that over 70 per cent of mobile phone related crimes emanated from the prisons where in-mates, especially those on death row or serving life sentences, collude with some warders to steal from gullible Kenyans. Police say Kenyans lost more than Sh10m in just four months late last year.

Statistics show Kamiti Prison is leading in the fraud, with 65 per cent of reported cases in the last 4 months alone. It is followed by Nakuru Prison with 15 per cent, Meru Prison with 12 per cent, Kibos with 1 per cent and Shimo la Tewa with 6 per cent of total cases reported.

The month of July reported the highest number of cases with Kamiti accounting for over 15,000 incidents.

"The prisons authorities can stop this fraud once and for all if they wanted to. They have the mechanisms to do it," says Mr Sewe.

He adds: "The prisons have failed to stop the cartels. They have also failed to stop the smuggling of the mobile phones into the facilities. The buck stops with them."

A senior police officer who has investigated a series of the syndicates says the cartels have been using inmates because it is difficult to pursue them inside the prisons.

"The syndicate involves the inmates, warders, M-Pesa agents and even some police officers," says the officer who sought anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

He says fraudsters take advantage of the prevalent sense of greed, financial stress and get-rich-quick attitude by Kenyans.

The mobile phone money transfer handles billions of shillings a day with majority of customers being smallscale traders. Besides M-Pesa, there is also Airtel Money, Orange Money and Yu-cash. Statistics from the Central Bank show that the four mobile operators have enrolled over 15 million customers, with daily movement of cash of more than Sh2.3 billion.