[kictanet] Kenya Greylisted- Paypal, Credit Cards-confirmed

Thu Feb 9 23:22:00 EAT 2012

Speaking purely from a selfish point of view, these kind of "grey-listings"
and "black-listings" are a modern form of economic sabotage and as such
ought to be treated with a certain level of gravity by the "victim"
government.

By now the diplomats representing countries from which some of these
companies operate should have been contacted and told to get the mechanisms
back home rolling to ensure that Kenya's "perception" isn't adversely
affected - and have these kinds of measures reversed.

And don't get me wrong, they are definitely aware and closely watching what
goes on in our digital space.

I remember getting a call from the US Department of Commerce and shortly
thereafter contact from their embassy here when KIXP got shut down back in
2000 and we had to fight to get it back up again. From memory I can count 3
foreign missions that intervened to assist us as TESPOK in the effort to
lobby the then govt, CCK  et al in order to reinstate the exchange point.

So we need to take these kind of actions sternly and exercise  a full slew
of formal, informal, official and unofficial measures to "protect" our
digital space.

Best regards,

Brian

On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 11:09 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Liko/Listers,
>
> Just recieved some authoritative position on the above.  Yes, we are not
> (yet) blacklisted.  We are however, grey-listed, meaning some payment
> solution providers will not touch our digital space.  In this instance,
> PayPal is one such solution provider. Am informed  Paypal's operations in
> the Kenyan space has been limited to only "recieve-money" from Kenya but
> never "pay-out money" to Kenya.  From their recent financial risk-profile
> review, they have downgraded Kenya nd now stopped BOTH recieve and pay
> operations.
>
> Ofcourse other payment solution providers continue operations - however,
> this is not a good sign.  It is similar to those travel-advisories.  If you
> get one against you from US, sooner rather than later, you will recieve
> another one from UK and subsequently EU...(you get the drift)
>
> So Liko and other eCommerce operators, plse dont wait untill everyone has
> flagged down Kenya before you do something about it.
>
> walu.
> btw: my earlier speculations on the reasons behind this turn of events
> seems to be quite close to the mark.
> --- On *Wed, 2/8/12, Agosta Liko <agostal at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Agosta Liko <agostal at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Kenya Blacklisted?- Paypal, Credit Cards
> To: "Walubengo J" <jwalu at yahoo.com>
> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2012, 11:58 AM
>
> Walu
>
> Please check with Isaca for the reason. ePayment providers usually will
> make decisions to not cover some areas or clients ... This does not mean
> that Kenya has been blacklisted.
>
> I have made calls and all local processors are processing cards ok
>
> You can test out your card (Visa/Mastercard) here
>
> http://www.nairobimarathon.com/ - donate 500 to Seeing is Believing
> http://rupu.co.ke/ and buy one of those daily deals. They have killer
> discounts
> http://umba.co.ke/ --- has good quality household stuff
>
> Also, I would not mind an inbox of management at Isaca Kenya ... We can
> process for them payments :)
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 9:27 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com<http://mc/compose?to=jwalu@yahoo.com>
> > wrote:
>
> Yeah,
>
> I do have a similar notice from www.isaca.org - Liko, these are serious
> Info-Security guys and I cant shoot them ;-)  They have suspended online
> renewals from members of  the local Kenyan Chapter www.isaca.or.ke(because the Kenyan digital space has  recently been flagged as "Not
> Supported" by their ePayment provider)
>
> I believe the blacklisting is really grey-lisiting i.e. blacklisting by
> highly sensitive e_payment providers.  But I think someone in government
> and private sector  needs to escalate this before we get a blanket
> blacklisting from the international community.
>
> My wild guess(no evidence yet)  is that maybe the war in somalia (is
> stimulating al-shabaab e-Transactions), piracy returns in the horn of
> africa and the hugely succefull MPESA e-Transactions could be regarded as
> being used by similar elements and therefore conspiring towards having us
> on the international watch-list as far as epayments is concerned.
>
> walu.
>
>
> --- On *Tue, 2/7/12, Anderson Levi <anderson.levi at gmail.com<http://mc/compose?to=anderson.levi@gmail.com>
> >* wrote:
>
>
> From: Anderson Levi <anderson.levi at gmail.com<http://mc/compose?to=anderson.levi@gmail.com>
> >
>
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Kenya Blacklisted?- Paypal, Credit Cards
> To: jwalu at yahoo.com <http://mc/compose?to=jwalu@yahoo.com>
>
> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<http://mc/compose?to=kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> >
> Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 3:55 PM
>
>
>
> On a related note here's an email I received late last year from
> Borderlinx, which provides local addresses in USA & UK for those who are
> buying products from companies that don't ship internationally. I never
> experienced any cases of fraud so I was quite surprised that it had reached
> a level whereby they ceased offering their service to Kenya.
>
>
>
>
> You are receiving this email because you subscribed via Borderlinx.
>  If you can't read this mail please click here<http://kdp.neolane.net/r/?id=h61d9557e,31e0f0eb,31e8f6be&p1=ced7cd1a6074fc4a1e>
>  [image: Borderlinx]<http://kdp.neolane.net/r/?id=h61d9557e,31e0f0eb,31e8f6bf>
>   *Cessation Of Cross-border Delivery Service To Kenya*     Dear
> Anderson,
>
> After several months of investigation and attempting to reduce the
> incidence of fraud, we have found ourselves in the unfortunate position of
> having to cease providing cross-border delivery services to Kenya with
> immediate effect.  We have considered a number of options to avoid this
> action, but the incidence and risk of fraud for Kenyan transactions is too
> great for our business to absorb.
>
> Regrettably, we will be closing the accounts of all Kenya customers. If
> you have any packages which are still in one of our export facilities,
> please give us your instructions to release the shipments no later than
> Friday, 16 December 2011.
>
> For those customers who have used our services for legal and honest
> purposes, we are truly sorry that we have been forced to take this
> difficult decision.  If you have any questions, please contact our live
> chat service via the website.
>
> Yours sincerely
> The Borderlinx Team
>
>     *Visit www.borderlinx.com*
> <http://kdp.neolane.net/r/?id=h61d9557e,31e0f0eb,31e8f6c0>
>  If you do not wish to receive future e-mails from Borderlinx, please click
> here<http://kdp.neolane.net/r/?id=h61d9557e,31e0f0eb,31e8f6c1&p1=anderson.levi@gmail.com>
> Please do not reply to this e-mail, if you wish to contact us, click here<http://mc/compose?to=newsletter@borderlinx.com>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 3:19 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk<http://mc/compose?to=robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>
> > wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> The local authentication has been active for over 2 years now, the SMS
> thing is what the USA is now trying to implement after seeing the success
> of Safaricom.
>
> I believe the issue of rejected transactions has to do with cards issued
> by certain banks.
>
> Regards
>
> Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box
> 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* James Mbugua <jgmbugua at gmail.com<http://mc/compose?to=jgmbugua@gmail.com>
> >
> *To:* robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk <http://mc/compose?to=robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>
> *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<http://mc/compose?to=kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>>
>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, 7 February 2012, 15:06
> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Kenya Blacklisted?- Paypal, Credit Cards
>
> There is talk now of introducing locally, owner authentification through
> mobile so that if your card is swiped or used, before the transaction goes
> through, you get an SMS asking you to authorize the transaction.
>
> Not sure where the initiative is currently.
>
> JG
>
> On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 2:51 PM, lordmwesh <lordmwesh at gmail.com<http://mc/compose?to=lordmwesh@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
>
> Just bought a book Yesterday from amazon,and they had no issue.
>
> But I gather that international companies don't value the African market
> so much since the sales revenue are too low, yet risk of business through
> fraud  is high. Credit card fraud is rampant in Africa and it's hard to
> apprehend the suspects. The legal and geographic boundaries make it hard to
> apprehend crooks.
>
> Ideally, If anybody lays hands on your CC or debit card, they can do
> online shopping with it. And card cloning and identity theft is rampant in
> Africa because most of us don't know the consequences.  If the owner
> complains of the theft and purchase, he is entitled to a cash refund. So
> someone has to cushion the losses.
>
> Often we let petrol station  and supermarket attendants dissapear with out
> CC. Do we know what they are doing with it?
>
>
> Regards
>
> On 7 February 2012 13:26, Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com<http://mc/compose?to=jwalu@yahoo.com>
> > wrote:
>
>  Liko, others,
>
> Might you be in the know on the above issues?  Just got wind that that
> international players are no longer respecting e-Transactions completed in
> kenya via Credit Cards issued and used in Kenyan digital space?
>
> What may have triggered such an eventuality?
>
> walu.
>
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> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
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> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
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> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
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> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
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> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
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> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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-- 
Brian Munyao Longwe
e-mail: blongwe at gmail.com
cell:  +254715964281
blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com
meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com
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