CA introduces new numbers as Sim swap fraud thrives

500 SIM cards
Detectives display over 500 simcards nabbed from fraudstars

The Communicaion Authority has announced additional of telephone numbers totalling to 5 million despite the ongoing cases of sim swap fraud.

Communications Authority director general Francis Wangusi. /COURTESY

The new addition has come even with the statistics that over 30 percent of Kenyans have more than one mobile number.

The addition totalling to 5 million new numbers will give fraudsters numerous options including using found IDs to register simcards then using them to access mobile loans from lending apps.

By December 2018, there ware over 106.2 million numbers.

Saturation of mobile numbers in the market has been propelled by among other things, mobile fraud.

Lost ID cards, have reportedly been used to register fraudulent numbers and later used to access mobile loans from lending apps.

Image result for sim swap fraud

Nicholas Kisundu, complained to leading mobile network company Safaricom over how his ID card had 4 registered numbers yet he only had one. Further to that, he had been listed on a credit bureau as a defaulter yet he had not taken any loan.

Image result for sim swap fraud

Last year, CA director general Francis Wangusi raised alarm of sim swa fraud where criminals pretending to be customer care attendants from mobile companies call unsuspecting people asking for their identity.

The fraudsters then go ahead to register new lines using the obtained information

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *