[kictanet] FW: What is happening at Safaricom,MPESA.
Jude Kikuyu
jkikuyu at gmail.com
Wed Jul 31 01:08:19 EAT 2013
Dear Jane,
I sympathize with your friend. However, this is clearly a case of
carelessness on your friends part.
Whereas, I do not speak for and on behalf of Safaricom, I am merely writing
as an M-Pesa user who has been interacting with the m-pesa system during
withdrawal and deposits.
It is NOT possible for anyone other than the m-pesa user to know their own
pin. You must give security systems built into software some credit and
this goes for the M-Pesa System.
Safaricom has severally advertised "PIN yako ni SIRI yako". Unfortunately,
to date, majority of m-pesa users still give their PIN to their twelve year
old son or daughter, spouse, m-pesa assistant and the list is endless.
The m-pesa system can only allow for reversals of transfers at the customer
care assitant's terminal. it is NOT possible for the customer care
assistant to move funds from an unsuspecting customer to another phone.
When you lose your property or it gets stolen, it is important to follow
due process and report the matter to the Police. Safaricom, as well as
other telcos, does not block a Phone line through a simple request over the
phone. A letter from the CID has to forwarded to Safaricom for a line to be
blocked or investigations to commence on a particular line.
In your case of Kshs 20,000.00, this can be explained as follows:- the
Customer care assistant saw Kshs 15,000.00 on the screen, Kshs 5,000.00
having been transfered to another phone. However, when the screen was
refreshed, the new account state showed zero funds. This is perfectly
normal from a systems perspective. The only mistake the customer care
assistant made was that s/he was trying to be helpful and hurriedly gave
answers before the final state of the account was displayed on the terminal.
In both yours and your friends case, it is highly likely that the person
who stole your phones is someone known to you and knew the the M-Pesa PIN.
Please also note that standard operating procedure in any organization does
not allow infringing on customer privacy. It would be unrealistic to ask
the customer care assistant at Safaricom to divulge information over the
phone regarding another customer or phone number.
Neither CCK or Central Bank anti-fraud unit will be able to assist you at
this juncture. Please report your matter to the nearest Police station for
your friend's matter to be resolved.
On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 10:35 AM, Jane Kagiri <kagirijane at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> Good morning all,I BELIEVE THIS IS A MUST READ BECAUSE KENYANS MUST START
> SPEAKING OUT AND WE MUST GET ANSWERS WE URGENTLY NEED FROM SAFARICOM. Here
> goes my story. Yesterday we were at a wedding with a friend of
> mine,unfortunately her handbag containing all her documents,keys and phones
> was stolen. To cut a long story short, a lady who had ever been through the
> same experience adviced us to urgently call all the banks she holds
> accounts with to stop any transactions. We called the banks and they
> greatly assisted. It is then that another lady reminded us that we also
> needed to call safaricom to stop any mpesa transactions too. My friend
> remembered she had KShs 48,000 on mpesa which she had received to pay for
> her nephew college fees. Thats when we realized that we needed to urgently
> call Safaricom, I tried calling for as long as i could until i finally got
> a customer care agent on the line. I handed my friend the phone to speak to
> the agent so as to give
> any details that would be required and i wouldnt know,but from
> here,PLEASE PAY ATTENTION. My friend identified herself and went on to
> explain that her bag had been stolen containing her phones and gave her
> number requesting if it could be blocked. What caught my attention to the
> call is when my friend responded," What has my mpesa balance got to do with
> my request to block my number", but again my friend went ahead to reveal
> the amount and give her ID number which she was asked for on realizing
> maybe the agent just wanted to be sure the money was still there. Thats
> when the agent said " Oh no,the money is much much less, " Again my friend
> in anger asked,"what is much much less yet you can see the amount on the
> screen?" the agent went ahead to say that KShs 40,000 had been transfered
> one hour ago to another number,my friend quckly jumped at that now certain
> the number would lead us to the thief,the agent quickly changed and said "
> No you directly
> withdrew from an mpesa agent,to which again my friend asked for the
> details knowing atleast we would follow a trail and see if the bag was
> dropped somewhere along the way, the agent then said she couldnt reveal any
> details until we reported to the police and an investigating officer
> allocated to that case,she concluded by asking where we were to which my
> friend responded Kiambu and she adviced that we needed to get my friend's
> mpesa statement to get the details and the nearest customer care from where
> we were according to her is Nakumatt Mega. That is when i smelt a big fat
> rat and questions started running through my mind. 1. Which thief however
> intelligent would be able to guess a pin in a record 30 minutes and get it
> right and despite being a thief withdraw KShs 40,000 and leave KShs 8000?
> 2. Why would the Safaricom customer care agent claim it to be a transfer
> then all of a sudden claim its a withdrawal from an agent when asked about
> the number
> yet those are two transactions with very different codes? 3. Why would
> anyone in her proffesional capacity refer to an amount as much much less
> yet if you recall from any calls you may have had with an agent they
> directly tell you what your balance is? 4. Why would an agent be quick to
> want to know what your mpesa balance is yet your interest is to have the
> line blocked? 5. Is Nakumatt Mega the nearest Safaricom Customer Care
> Office or was someone trying to buy time? 6. As claimed when the call
> began,i believe that this call was recorded,over to you Bob Collymore, this
> is one call that needs to be replayed and audited. Finally,this led me to a
> conclusion with a phrase i tell everyone," Everything happens for a good
> reason,you may not see it now but one day you will. If my friend's bag was
> stolen for Kenyans to finally know the truth about what is happening yet we
> are made to believe its a sequence of events, she confidently says she will
> have played
> her role in society. DEAR ONES, LETS BREAK THE SILENCE AND START ASKING
> QUESTIONS This incident reminded me of something that happened to me last
> year, i didnt have money on mpesa and requested a friend who had KShs
> 20,000 on his to send someone,he erroneously put in a wrong number and the
> money went to someone else,when we called Safaricom,we were told that the
> person had already transfered KShs 5000 to another number but they had
> managed to reverse KShs 15000 and we would get it back in 2days, a few
> minutes later the same agent called claiming that the KShs 15000 had also
> been withdrawn, how i wish i had asked questions then because i would have
> saved so many other people,the more i talk, the more i realize so many
> people have gone through the same and its common with five digit amounts
> and what i wondered is, does the information we give in our desperation end
> up being someone elses fodder. We need answers urgently,safaricom.
>
> Kindly advice on the way forward.
> Your's faithfully
> Jane Kagiri
>
>
>
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