Neno Evangelism Centre pastor James Ng’ang’a has exposed fraudsters using the sim swap trick to defraud unsuspecting Kenyans, advising people to stay vigilant to avoid falling into the same trap.
Speaking to his congregants, the televangelist narrated how the fraudsters emptied money from his SIM cards registered under different churches to collect offerings.
According to Ng'ang’a, in the first incident, an unknown person visited a telco's regional customer care outlet in Nakuru where they swapped the first sim card registered under James Ng’ang’a and withdrew over Ksh200,000.
“I was contacted by the Jerusalem church and they informed me that the phone was not working, so I offered to visit the service provider’s office and sort the issue, however, the one registered for this church stopped working as well,” he stated.
Upon seeking help from customer care, the pastor was informed that someone had swapped numbers for the two registered lines, in two days at the same shop in Nakuru.
Pastor Ng’ang’a further faulted the attendant, noting that failure to confirm National Identification (IDs) cards in such instances was the leading cause of sim swap fraud.
Ng’ang’a further encouraged his church members to stay strong even in moments of trials and temptations, as God always helps.
“Seasons come and go. Do your work in all seasons, and leave the rest to God,” he stated during one of his daily sermons.
The Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Wednesday, February 14 arrested two suspected members of a gang that has been terrorising Busia, Kericho and Nakuru county residents in an ongoing operation to weed out the criminal syndicate which is also notorious for electronic fraud.
The two were arrested for a robbery with violence crime case reported at Litein Police Station on December 29, 2023. They will be arraigned at the Kericho Law Courts once investigations into the matter are concluded.
DCI launched the operation after numerous sim swap complaints were filed by Kenyans. The crimes are believed to have been committed by well-known gang members.
