FULIZA LOSES CLOSE TO SH 500 MILLION TO SCAMMERS
Great to see that law enforcement are catching up. It will be interesting
to see whether ODPP can successfully prosecute the offences and recover the
funds.
******
Detectives have uncovered a high level syndicate where scammers have
obtained close to Sh500 million through a popular mobile phone platform
supported by mobile communication service provider, Safaricom.
The service provider through its Fuliza overdraft service where customers
can complete their MPESA transactions even when they do not have enough
funds in their M-PESA account, lost the money in a well coordinated scheme
by eight young men based in Nakuru and Trans-Nzoia counties.
Isaack Kipkemoi, Gideon Rono, Maxwell Ributhu, Gideon Kirui, Moses Rono,
Collins Kipyegon and Edwin Cheruiyot were arrested at an apartment in
Kiamunyi, while the mastermind Peter Gitahi was arrested in Kitale,
Trans-Nzoia County following the meticulous operation by our officers.
The young men who were found in possession of thousands of Safaricom and
Airtel SIM cards were using fraudulently generated identity cards numbers
to register the SIM cards before proceeding to borrow money through the
application.
Detectives began investigations into this well choreographed fraud after a
report was filled to the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit (BFIU) in August
2022, after the managers of the fund detected an unusual spike in Fuliza
loan uptakes that were way above their performance scale and the borrowers
were not repaying the loans.
According to sleuths from BFIU, over 123,000 new mobile phone numbers opted
into fuliza and took up loans in January 2022. Thereafter, the SIM cards
were either fraudulently vacated or switched off and efforts to reach the
customers turned futile.
It is after further investigations that detectives realized that the SIM
cards had been registered fraudulently by one of the suspects identified as
Peter Gitahi, who is suspected to have access to the National Registration
Bureau database, where he develops falsified identity numbers used in the
high profile fraud.
Preliminary investigations indicate that after developing the numbers and
registering the lines he would sell them to his accomplices based in Nakuru
who would then perpetuate the fraud.
Further, the detectives uncovered that some of the lines had been
registered as Safaricom agents where the borrowed funds would be deposited
to personal bank accounts belonging to the individuals, disguised as Mpesa
float.
The seemingly industrious suspects would initially borrow money and repay
thereby improving their credit scores, until the SIM cards achieved their
limits when they would borrow for the last time before disposing the SIM
card.
One identity card would be used to register 5 lines in the daring SIM scam
perpetuated by the young men, aged between 24-30 years.
The suspects who live large in an apartment at Kiamunyi, have through their
craft acquired 2 brand new Subarus, one Toyota Mark X, a Toyota Probox and
two motorbikes for their ease of movement.
During the operation, the detectives recovered 14 mobicom phones used in
registering MPESA user SIM cards, 6laptops over 40 mobile phones, 7
routers, assorted Safaricom lines, over 1000 Safaricom subscribers
registration forms, over 200 ATM cards from all major banks, car agreements
among other exhibits.
Detectives are currently interrogating the suspects for more insights into
the high level fraud before arraigning them in court.
#FichuakwaDCI 0800 722 203.