CAUTION!!! Why You Should Never Send Funds Via MPesa / Airtel Money In Exchange For Physical Cash From Strangers

As many ordinary Kenyans continue to feel the pinch of inflation and have to work twice as hard to keep up by engaging in several income-earning ventures, a different lot of Kenyans are reaping heavily where they did not sow without breaking a sweat.

Such breed are well versed in their craft in addition to being technologically adept, that it is almost impossible to detect their Mischievery while in progress, until it is too late and one is left with nothing but a statistical victim with a story to tell.

Such criminals do not need the necessity of guns or crude weapons to rob you blind, their only weapon of choice is their brains, knowledge of how various systems operate and of course – your ignorance in order to fulfil their mission.

A recent incident concerning a victim who was approached by 3 individuals ( 2 men and 1 lady) details the con-lady requiring the victim to send her Ksh 2000 via mobile money in exchange for the same amount in cash.

After the transaction was made, the 3 criminals left.

The next morning, the victim realized that large sums of money was missing from his account initiated by fraudulent transactions made to various strange phone numbers as well as an unknown bank account.

Upon reporting the incident to the authorities, it was later revealed that the criminals had managed to swap ( line swapping basically entails transferring the details of an old SIM card to a new SIM card) the victim’s line after gaining access to the victim’s mobile money PIN code as well as the phone number which are both pre-requisites in the Sim swapping process.

Through the above incident, it is therefore advised to maintain extreme caution or alternatively refrain from engaging strangers in matters of online transactions.