By A, KNA
Narok County Commissioner (CC) Kipkech Lotiatia has raised concern over the increasing number of people being conned money by fraudsters pretending to be bank or mobile company employees.
Lotiatia said the fraudsters mostly target women and the elderly, whom they trick to reveal their Personal Identification Number (PIN) before they transfer all the money from the accounts of the unsuspecting citizens.
The CC decried that the incidents have caused trauma in many families, hence called on residents to be very careful when doing mobile money transfers.
“The fraudsters have a convincing tongue. They pretend to be employees of banking institutions or mobile phone companies so that they can get someone’s PIN, which they later use to transfer all the money from the account,” said Lotiatia.
He warned those deceiving innocent Kenyans that their days were numbered as they would be arrested and prosecuted in court of law.
Mary Njoki, a trader in Narok town recalled how she was recently conned Sh1, 000 by a customer, who pretended to pay for the goods bought via M-Pesa, only to reverse before the money was transferred to her phone.
“I don’t know what happened. What I remember is that my name appeared in his phone for the transfer, but the said money did not reflect in my phone,” she said.
Following the increasing incidents, Gospel Revival Church, led by Bishop Augustine Rugut held a prayer meeting at Mulot area a month ago, where a big number of fraudsters are said to originate from.
The spiritual leader said many young people had changed their ways after giving their lives to Jesus Christ.
“We request the government to invest in the young people who have changed their motive by taking them to technical colleges where they can exploit their talent in ICT,” he said.
The bishop observed that though technology had brought positive impact in the world, there was a need for Kenyans to be educated on data protection to avoid increasing cases of fraud in the country.