Engineering Student, Telco Staff Arrested Over Rampant SIM Swap Fraud

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has made the first arrests in connection with the rampant sim swap fraud that has been affecting a growing number of Kenyans in recent weeks.

An student at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) was apprehended as well as an employee of a telco.

Rian Obaga is a fourth year student pursuing a BSc. Electronic Engineering.

The Friday arrest also saw police confiscate 2,160 unused sim cards, a Macbook, five till and agent numbers, books, a router and two mobile phones.

The ongoing fraud involves remote replacement of people's sim cards which are supposedly lost or damaged after which fraudsters access mobile money accounts through the sim toolkit feature and mobile banking apps.

[caption caption="A mobile phone user tests a phone at a store in Nairobi"][/caption]

Social engineering is often used by the fraudsters to acquire Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as national ID number, SIM card PIN, bank account PIN and more.

This information can be used to uniquely identify users and is employed by the fraudsters to replace the sim cards before emptying accounts.

An alert from the Communications Authority advised Kenyans to be cautious of any calls or e-mails asking for PII unless you are absolutely sure of the party you are communicating with.

Users were also advised to never reveal their PIN for any of their accounts as that is one's secret.

In addition, cases of fraud are to be reported to the service provider or the nearest police station.

[caption caption="Mobile phone users in Nairobi"][/caption]

 

 

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