Ikinu Ward MCA Stanley Wanjiku is the latest victim of a SIM card swap scam that is taking root in the country.
The MCA was conned by the scammers when he was out of the country. He had travelled on a trip to Israel last month and wanted to transact his business through his mobile money transfer account while abroad.
On July 3, Wanjiku was shocked to realise his pin was blocked and not working anymore. He received an SMS which instructed him to use a certain number to call his bank's service centre to have his pin reset. He decided to call his bank via a WhatsApp call to have his pin changed but wasn't successful.
“I wrote them (bank’s call centre) an SMS via the same number (the number given to him) giving my (bank) account number and my phone number only,” said Mr Wanjiku, as quoted by the Nation.
After failing to get the pin resetting done through a WhatsApp call, Wanjiku waited until he came back into the country on July 5, when he decided to get some cash from his mobile account upon landing at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
The MCA was shocked when he realised he could not access the service. After making inquiries at one of the mobile shops in JKIA, he was told his sim card had been replaced on July 3, the day he shared his name and bank account number with the hackers.
“We also learnt that Sh40,000 had been withdrawn from my account. I do not know how my mobile money PIN was regenerated and issued to strangers. I am at a loss how they identified themselves,” he added, as quoted by the daily.
Wanjiku later learnt that besides the Sh40,000 withdrawn from his mobile account, his bank accounts including a joint account which was not linked to his sim card had been affected. The scammers had stolen a total of Sh1.9 million from the three accounts.
The MCA reported the matter at the Central Police Station.