A lady working at a money transfer shop on Wednesday, June 28, unearthed a trick used by con artists to steal money by borrowing shop attendants' phones.
According to the lady who also sells bleach and other chemicals in Ruiru town Kiambu County, a man, and woman came to her shop pretending to purchase various goods.
The female suspect posing as a customer, however, claimed that she had been sent by someone else and had forgotten the required quantities.
She, therefore, borrowed the shopkeeper's phone to enquire from the person who had sent her about the quantities she was to purchase .
Instead, the suspect exploited the opportunity to save her own contact in the shopkeeper's phone disguising it under the name of a well-established customer service line belonging to a mainstream telco.
Shortly after the duo left, the shopkeeper received a call from a person purporting to work as a customer care agent at the telecommunications company.
She was then instructed to follow a set of instructions as part of a regular system maintenance routine.
Sensing something was off, she went to her call logs only to realise the suspect had saved her own number.
"I would have lost all my money. Two people were calling me, one pretending to be the admin while emphasising the system update," she lamented.
She, therefore, urged Kenyans, especially those in money transfer shops, to be careful while lending their phones to strangers who may harbour ulterior motives.
While some sympathised with the lady, a section of Kenyans shared their experiences of being conned by suspects who obtain their personal details under false pretenses.
"This is why people find it hard to help people in need because most times, they are just cons," one stated.
One of the victims narrated how he lost Ksh96,000 after filing an online complaint about a system failure at a local bank.
The whole scheme started when an unknown person sent him a message detailing the steps to follow to carry out the transaction despite the system failure. Unfortunately, the victim lost all his money as a result.
On Thursday, June 22, ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo assured Kenyans that the ministry was working with the Communications Authority of Kenya to limit cases of cybercrime and protect their personal information.
He explained that the ministry had put in place measures to support critical information network operators and service providers in cybersecurity management.
