Scammers have found a new way of defrauding innocent Kenyans in a scheme targeting bank-to-mobile money transactions.
In the new scheme, fraudsters target bank accounts, withdraw money and intentionally send them to innocent Kenyan’s mobile money.
Immediately after, the victims are called to transfer back the money on mobile money and not to the bank account.
Victims of the new scheme allege that the scammers aim to avoid revealing their tracks in their fraud scheme as they tend to escape from police arrest.
In such a case, a Nairobi-based woman Jackie Saleh on Wednesday, February 8, detailed how a scammer erroneously sent Ksh140,000 to her friend’s phone from a bank adding that they received a confirmation message from the bank and the network provider over the transaction.
She documented that they were not expecting any money and patiently waited for a call from the sender to claim the money.
Minutes later, Saleh documented that a man called them claiming that he mistakenly sent the money to the phone and demanded they refund the money on his mobile money.
However, the duo was hesitant over the demands as they insisted to reverse the money back to the bank account.
“I asked the man to send me his account number and his name to refund the money but he refused. He insisted that the money be sent to his mobile money even asking that I should just send Ksh139,000,” she stated.
After the call, she indicated that they checked the balance and the Ksh140,000 received earlier had mysteriously disappeared even as she wondered what had happened.
She shared screenshots of the messages adding that no reversal message was sent to them by the bank
“After like one hour, my lady friend bought credit worth Ksh5 through mobile money. The balance is Ksh4,000. We asked ourselves where the Ksh140,000 went.
“There was no notification of the money being reversed from the bank or the mobile money service provider. The money just vanished. So people need to be careful,” he stated.
Selah cautioned Kenyans against the new scheme noting that many would find themselves in police custody as the scammers skillfully cover their tracks.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE