A lady narrated how Kenyan fraudsters are using new tricks to cover their tracks.
Yesterday at around 5pm a friend of mine received two messages. One from Equity bank and the other from M-PESA.
She had received 140,000 shillings. We thought it was some scam. I advised her to make a transaction of her M-PESA since she had some money in her M-PESA wallet. She sent 4,600 shillings to a friend. We checked the balance together and it was 144,000 shillings.
I told her to give it time the owner of the money will call. After about 30 minutes a man called. He sounded very rude and drunk. My lady friend passed the phone to me. Below is the conversation with the man.
Man: Nimetuma pesa kwako kibati mbaya. Umetumia ngapi?
Me: Umetuma pesa ngapi?
Man: Elfu mía moja arobaine.
Me: Umetuma n’a number gani?
Man: Sijatuma n’a number, nimetuma n’a equity bank.
Me: Majina za equity bank ni gani? Coz I wanted to confirm if he is the owner of the bank account.
Man: Wewe wacha kujifanya mjinga. Si wew unaona hizo Jina kwa simu yako? Fanya ivi, nitumie 139,000 kwa hii number then uchukue 1,000.
Me: Sitaki pesa zako. Na sikutumii pesa kwa M-PESA. Vile umetuma n’a bank. Pia mimi na rudisha na bank. Najua paybill ya equity ni 247247. Nipee account number yako nikudepostie pesa yako. But mimi sikutumii pesa yeyeto kwa mpesa. Although nitakata transaction fee pekee.
Man: Kwani unadhani mimi ni mwizi? Mimi si mwizi. Wewe nitumie pesa kwa hii number ama ucancel hiyo pesa.
Me: Nita cancel aje pesa ishaingia kwa mpesa? Nimekuambia nipee account number nikurudishie pesa yako. Sawa ?
The man disconnected the phone. I returned the phone to my lady friend and told her not to try sending that money via M-PESA. I explained to her how fraudsters nowadays use this tactics. They rob someone at gun point take the ATM which has the account number and force the victim to give their pin. After that, victim gets killed. Starts sending money to random people from the victims account then calls the number where the money is transfered to so that the money can be send to their anonymous numbers. After receiving the money they withdraw and dispose of that M-PESA line. You can’t trace them.
Then when the police try to trace that transaction, it will lead to you and not the perpetrator of the heinous act. Then you get arrested, detained and probably jailed after failing to prove that you are innocent.
That aside. After like 1 hour, my lady friend bought credit worth 5 shillings through M-PESA. The balance is 4,000 shillings. We asked ourselves where the 140,000 went. There was no notification of the money being reversed from Equity nor M-PESA. The money just vanished. I told her it was an inside job.
So guys, be careful. Usitumiwe pesa via bank then uambiwe utume kwa M-PESA ya msee. The money might be proceed of crime then unajipata kwa ngori. Be super careful.
