Fraudsters are becoming smarter in their evil ways even as Kenyan detectives pursue them.
Police say criminals are improvising new ways of robbing, maiming and killing their victims.
They are also hacking sites and unlawfully obtaining crucial data.
The Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) is now going an extra mile to break the news both on social and mainstream media of any major breakthrough they make in combating crime.
For instance on Friday, DCI reported that a fraud suspect believed to have been operating a high-tech mobile phone scam syndicate was arrested and a gunny bag full of SIM cards recovered.
The simcards belonged to mobile phone service providers Safaricom, Airtel and Telcom.
“His arrest followed a joint operation by detectives and investigators from Safaricom,” DCI reported on its social media platforms.
The arrest came after the suspect swindled an Mpesa agent, an unspecified amount of money.
“The fraudster masquerading as an M-Pesa customer care attendant, called the agent and lured her into dialing some unspecified codes,” the report said.
Before the agent realized that she was in a phony call, she had already lost cash from her money lending account.
The money was sent to an Mpesa account belonging to one of the fraudulently acquired SIM cards.
It was then transferred to an account at Cooperative bank.
The suspect identified as Kiprop (see photo above) and his accomplices who escaped our dragnet narrowly, is believed to have swindled unsuspecting members of the public millions of shillings through this pretentious scheme, DCI reported.
“Earlier, the suspect had hacked into the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) database, and acquired personal details of 61,617registered voters from a county in western Kenya.”
DCI said that the data, which was found in his possession, contained names of registered voters, their ID numbers and dates of birth.
Detectives established that using the fraudulently acquired personal details, the suspects contact different wireless carriers and convince 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,” DCI said.
The 21-year-old suspect believed to have previously worked for one of Kenya’s mobile phone networks, was arrested in Juja by sleuths from Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau.
The sleuths were supported by Safaricom’s fraud investigations team and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology security officers.
DCI is involving members of the public to help them net the suspect’s accomplices.
“Should you have further information that may lead to the arrest of the suspect’s accomplices, kindly #FichuakwaDCI through 0800722203. USIOGOPE!”
Meanwhile, hundreds of Kenyans took sent mixed feedback to the Facebook post.
While some congratulated the police, others said that criminals were outsmarting them and should up their skills.
PHOTO/Courtesy.
