[kictanet] Sim card swap: How Farah Bashir lost Sh2.6m to fraudsters in hours

[Deborah Wanjugu]

Thank you for this article, Victor.

This is quite frightening because prepaid customers on Safaricom cannot
call 100 and get served by an agent (that was my experience which made me
migrate back to postpaid).

If the gentleman in this article acted as quickly as he possibly could and
reached out to Safaricom on Twitter yet did not get the help he needed then
something is terribly wrong with that online reporting system.

I've noticed that when customer service agents respond on social media they
respond based on their own perceptions and not what the client tells them.
This isn't always the case and I'm not referring to Safaricom alone. As a
random example I reported not having received my electricity bill to Kanya
Power on Twitter. Instead of sending me my estimate, one of the agents
asked for the nearest marker to my place so they could send technical
support.

Another problem is when you call to report fraud with your bank then they
start asking you questions which feel irrelevant at the time. I once
thought my card had been hacked so when I called to report it they asked me
some silly questions. I don't remember what they were but I do remember
being pissed and having to contain myself under the pressure.

There needs to be a tightening of customer service particularly with
respect to online fraud reporting.

I don't know what other pieces need to be fixed. This is where my personal
beef is.

Deborah

On Mon, May 30, 2022, 10:14 Victor Kapiyo via KICTANet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> Morning Listers,
>
> In the news today:
>
> Farah Bashir is yet to come to terms with how his bank accounts were wiped
> clean by fraudsters, barely two days after he had landed in Johannesburg
> for a two-week assignment in February.
>
> He painfully recounted how he watched helplessly as Sh2.6 million was
> withdrawn by hackers in several transactions from his four different Absa
> Bank accounts between February 7 and February 9.
>
> Read more:
> https://nation.africa/kenya/news/sim-card-swap-how-farah-bashir-lost-sh2-6m-to-fraudsters-in-hours-3831356
>
> SIM Card fraud has been in the bees lately. The sums lost are pretty high.
> I bet there are many sad tales from individuals who've lost collasal
> amounts due to sim swap fraud.
>
> How come we're not able to contain this crimes? I wonder who's the weakest
> link here that needs to pull up their socks? It's really a big threat to
> our digital economy if we can't address this growing menace.
>
> Happy to hear your thoughts on this.
>
> Regards,
>
> Victor
>
>
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