Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Wednesday uncovered one of the advanced bases from which sim swap fraudsters have been operating.
With a surge in cases of the fraud in recent months, the afternoon operation by the DCI also saw four suspects arrested; two females and two males.
A massive stash of high-end phones, inverters, computers and other electrical appliances were also seized.
Among them were 240 iPhones, 150 MI phones, 30,000 SIM Cards and 2 laptops.
This points to the lucrative nature of the rampant sim swap fraud that has seen Kenyans lose cash through mobile banking applications and mobile money platforms.
[caption caption="Phones found at the suspects' residence"]
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The fraudsters are able to replace supposedly lost or stolen sim cards without the real owners' consent after which they proceed to wipe the accounts clean.
With an Apple iPhone 8 Plus 64 GB smartphone retailing at an average price of Sh88,000 in Nairobi, the iPhones seized in the operation alone were worth at least Sh21,120,000.
The sim cards they were nabbed with also belong to several networks, an indicator of the fraudsters' reach.
The Communications Authority (CA) recently issued guidelines warning Kenyans on how to avoid falling prey to the scammers.
The four suspects who were arrested will be arraigned in court on August 9, 2018.
[caption caption="More devices found at the suspects' residence"]
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