Detectives Uncover a High Level Fraud Syndicate of Over sh 500 Million

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Thursday, February 9, 2023 –Eight young men living a wealth lifestyle have been arrested over mobile money fraud in a well calculated cyber-crime.

Aged between 24 and 30 and living in Nukuru and Trans Nzoia counties, the young men have been siphoning money from a mobile lender amounting into millions through what the police have described as high-level fraud syndicate.

Directorate of Criminal Investigations DCI informed that the group managed to steal atleast sh 500 million from a mobile lender.

Sleuths also uncovered that the eight had managed to register Safaricom lines which they used to effortlessly get money from the popular lender.

The police further noticed that the men had luxurious cars where they bought brand new Subaru, one Mark X and a Toyota Probox plus two motorbikes which they, sometimes, used to move around to evade being noticed by the public easily.

First report of suspicious amounts of money being sent to some individuals was made last year in August when the investigators were sent to monitor their movements.

“Detectives began investigations after a report was filled to the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit (BFIU) in August 2022, after the managers of the fund detected an unusual spike in mobile loan uptakes that were way above their performance scale and the borrowers were not repaying the loans,” DCI narrated.

The investigation exercise would take months with detectives establishing that one of them had fraudulently registered SIM Cards which he sold to his accomplices.

“According to sleuths from BFIU, over 123,000 new mobile phone numbers opted into mobile loans and took up loans in January 2022. Thereafter, the SIM cards were either fraudulently vacated or switched off and efforts to reach the customers turned futile,” DCI stated in his final report.

They allegedly had access to the National Registration Bureau NRB database where they developed fake identity numbers that were used in the high-profile fraud game.

Additionally, the eight devised a way of borrowing money from the lender, repaid and when they hit a certain high credit threshold, they would borrow colossal figures and switch off their lines.

Some of the SIM line were registered as money agents where the borrowed money would be hidden as a mobile float.

During the well-calculated arrest, police retrieved a total of 14 phones, six laptops, over 40 mobile phones, seven routers, assorted sim cards, and over 1000 SIM card registration forms.

Furthermore, the detectives found with them over 200 ATM cards from all major banks, and car agreements among other exhibits.

They will be arraigned in court after a comprehensive police report is completed next week.