The DCI apprehended eight scammers fromTrans-Nzoia and Nakuru county on Wednesday, February 8, for allegedly stealing Ksh 500 million through Fuliza, a popular mobile phone platform supported by mobile communication service provider, Safaricom.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the eight aged between 24 and 30 years successfully registered hundreds of sim cards to steal money from people.
In a statement, the DCI detailed the luxurious life the eight lived having bought two brand new Subarus, a Mark X, a Toyota Probox, and two Motorbikes used to likely broaden their operations.
The report indicates that the suspicious amount of money being sent to some individuals was made last year in August.
“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 a surprising projection in mobile loan uptakes that were way above their performance scale and the borrowers were not repaying the loans,” DCI clarified.
Through the investigations, the detectives confirmed that one of the suspects fallaciously registered sim cards he would later sell to his collaborators.
The suspect had access to the National Registration Bureau Database (NRBD) where he formulated fake identity numbers that were used in the high profile fraud.
“According to a detective from BFIU, over 123,000 new mobile phone numbers opted into mobile loans and took up loans in last year January. Thereafter, the SIM cards were switched off,” DCI said.
Further, the suspects would borrow money from the online lender to increase their limit before borrowing a huge amount and abandoning the sim cards.
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The detective uncovered some of the lines which had been registered as money agents where the borrowed cash would be deposited to personal bank accounts belonging to the individuals.
Detectives retrieved 14 mobicom phones, 6 laptops, over 40 mobile phones, 7 routers, assorted sim cards, over 1000 sim card registration forms, over 200 ATM cards from all major banks, and car agreements among other exhibits.
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