The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has announced it will be working closely with Safaricom in investigating M-Pesa fraud cases committed through its mobile phone network.
The Director of Criminal Investigations Mr Mohamed Amin, acknowledged that techno savvy criminals had taken advantage of the rapid advances in technology to commit crime.
Hence, there is a need for a change of strategy between Safaricom and security agencies.
For a start, information sharing will be key. The two parties will work together to create awareness and educate the public on digital crime. They have committed to use different platforms including social media in this process.
The public will be informed on how to detect or avoid falling into traps.
The partnership was announced after a team from Safaricom was hosted by Mr. Amin at the DCI headquarters. Safaricom’s delegation was led by Mr James Kiama who is the head Route to Customer Safaricom PLC.
Unending M-Pesa Fraud Allegations
Safaricom has faced numerous M-Pesa fraud allegations. Recently, veteran doctor, Andrew Suleh took to twitter to allege he had lost Ksh 100,000 via M-Pesa fraudsters. His claims drew lots of sympathy and ire on social media including from politician Martha Karua.
In February, Police officers discovered a sophisticated fraud network where con artists obtained almost KES 500 million through M-PESA overdraft service, Fuliza by Safaricom.
Sim Swap has been another challenge Safaricom has been facing. In the recent past, authorities such as the CA have been patching loopholes in the whole SIM card registration exercise.
However, it has emerged that unscrupulous individuals are well-connected, and have access to M-PESA agents, who are allowed by law to register SIM.
It will be the hope of the telco, relevant authorities, and millions of M-Pesa users that this partnership bears tangible fruits.
