A 57-year-old man from Nairobi is in distress after discovering that a Safaricom SIM card registered in his name was used to transact over Sh2.7 million in the past six months.
Anthony Mugo told Nation that he made the discovery after visiting Equity Bank Kilimani branch on April 25th seeking a loan but he was informed that he does not qualify since he had been listed by a credit reference bureau (CRB) as a defaulter.
The following day, the man contacted CRB TransUnion via WhatsApp and was told that he had defaulted on a Sh6,742 Fuliza loan and needed to pay the amount plus a Sh2,200 clearance fee to be delisted. Mugo was shocked to learn that the number used to take the loan did not belong to him.
He later went to the NCBA Bank Junction Mall branch on Ngong’ Road seeking to have his name cleared but he was told to visit Safaricom for help. Mugo sought help from a Safaricom shop at Junction Mall to report the incident and was promised that the case would be resolved in 72 hours.
After two weeks of silence, Mugo decided to visit Safaricom offices on May 12th and that is when he was furnished with shocking records of how a fraudster who registered a SIM card with his National Identity Card took a Fuliza loan of Sh6,742 and transacted more than Sh2,726,667 between October 1st, 2021 to May 11th, 2022.
This included eight deposits amounting to Sh395,489 which was later withdrawn in 11 transactions. The suspected fraudster also deposited Sh240,430 on January 18th in four tranches and withdrew Sh240,374 in four separate transactions on the same day.
Safaricom’s Head of Corporate Communications Wachira Kangaru promised to get to the bottom of the matter. “Let him come to our offices in Westlands or you can also share his details with us and we shall sort out this issue very quickly,” he told Nation.
Kabete sub-County police commander Francis Wahome urged Mugo to make a report to him or the criminal investigations officer in Dagoretti.
Must be those Nigerians in…
Must be those Nigerians in Kenya.