Fraud puzzle as Safaricom dismisses system hack claims

There was confusion yesterday after claims that someone had hacked Safaricom system.

Unconfirmed reports said the hacker accessed the system and allowed subscribers to get free data bundles and airtime. It is said the company suffered a loss of data bundles worth 500 million and airtime worth Sh1 million.

While the police said they had arrested the perpetrator, Safaricom dismissed the claims as rumours. Safaricom allegedly reached out to those who had “illegally” acquired the data and airtime to visit their nearest outlets to rectify the mistake. 

Kiambu county commissioner Wilson Wanyanga said officers had arrested the suspect in Juja and will present him in court today. He told journalists the suspect had been found in possession of some 1,000 Simcards belonging to the company.

Wanyanga said the suspect, believed to be a university student, hacked the system and allowed subscribers to get free access to data bundles and airtime. Safaricom, however, maintained they were not aware of such claims. A communications manager who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were aware the police had made several arrests but only related to Simwap and M-Pesa fraud.

"We are not aware of such hacking. We are not even aware of any arrests that have been made. All we know is that the police have been on alert over sim swap and M-Pesa fraudsters. If there are any arrests they might be related to that and not hacking,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wanyanga said DCI officers had raided a residential home in Ruiru and recovered more than Sh100 million fake cash. The county police boss said the detectives were tipped y members of the public.

He said the fake money has stashed in a briefcase in 8,890 bundles of Sh100 notes.

“Our officers raided the house at 3am and arrested the suspects who are in our custody. We recovered some chemicals used to cleanse the money,” Wanyanga said.

He urged the public to be vigilant so they do not fall victim to fraudsters, especially with the introduction of the new currency notes.

In the same vicinity, another four suspects were arrested as they tried to steal from a bank ATM. Wanyanga said the four — a KK security guard, two G4S security guards and a motorbike rider — were nabbed as they tried to access an ATM at Barclays Bank.

He said the suspects had been police radar after they tried to steal from an ATM machine belonging to Equity Bank. Wanyanga said the suspects have secret codes that allow them to open the machines and take all the cash. They are suspected to be colluding with bank employees.

"We are pursuing more people and this might include arresting some of staff members of these banks,”  Wanyanga said.