Police in Bomet and Narok counties are searching for a man who is suspected of engaging in mobile money transfer fraud.
The man is suspected of being a leader of the notorious Mulot Sim swap syndicate that operates along the border between the two countries.
He is accused of stealing Sh941,000 from a bank account belonging to a Member of Parliament who had left the country on December 2 and 3.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) describes him (name withheld for legal reasons) in a social media post as “a dangerous criminal who has previously served time in prison and has several cases and warrants of arrest hanging around his neck.”
“This follows extensive investigations by the elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau detectives, who unraveled the identity of the de facto leader of the criminal enterprise, responsible for [the] SIM swap scam, in which phone scammers hijack a victim’s cell phone number and use it to gain access to sensitive personal data and bank accounts through the mobile banking applications available on mobile phones,” the statement says.
Police arrested an accomplice who works as a boda boda operator in Mulot trading centre after he posted wads of cash on social media and boasted about his new-found loot.
According to the DCI, the suspects work with employees of various banks to gain access to the details of targeted individuals’ accounts, after which they call them pretending to be customer service representatives and ask for PIN numbers and their most recent transactions.
The suspects are accused of registering several SIM cards with other people’s information and using them to deposit and withdraw stolen money.
