Safaricom staff, Engineering student arrested over SIM card fraud

A fourth-year engineering student from JKUAT was among those arrested on Friday in connection with SIM card fraud in the country.

The DCI, through its social media platforms, noted that an employee of Safaricom was also arrested and several gadgets were recovered from them.

“Mr. Maurice Musoti an employee of Safaricom & Rian Obaga Nyagaka, a fourth-year student at #JKUAT studying BSc.Electronic Engineering were arrested yesterday in connection with the #simcard Fraud.

“The following items were recovered: One Laptop make apple,2,160 Unused Safaricom #SIM cards, 44 Used Safaricom SIM cards, #Five Till Agent numbers, #three Mpesa Safaricom books, #Internet Booster Rauter and #two mobile phones; a blackberry and Samsung J7,” wrote the DCI.

Last week, the Communication Authority of Kenya had warned mobile phone users against giving out information including Personal Identification Information (PIN) numbers to unknown parties.

In recent weeks, a number of mobile phone users have reported phone calls from suspicious people who asked for their personal details claiming to work for local mobile network operators.

Mobile subscribers were asked to share their ID numbers, M-Pesa PIN, SIM card PIN among others and their cards would be swapped without their knowledge.

This gave the fraudsters total control over accounts of unsuspecting victims on services such as mobile money transfer and internet banking.