- According to a statement recorded at Kibicho Police Station, the strangers told the lady that they were planning to open a chemist and a clinic.
- Lenders have also asked customers to ensure that they set up strong passwords
Image: FILE
Equity Bank has asked customers to be vigilant and not to share personal details while transacting online.
This is coming at a time when the number of cases where scammers are tricking customers into giving them their personal identification numbers which they use to withdraw money from said accounts is on the rise.
"We have taken note of your concerns and wish to assure you that any case of fraud raised is taken seriously and acted upon. We follow the due process to resolve the cases and always keep our customers updated,'' Equity Bank said in a statement.
For instance, a business lady in Kibingoti, Kerugoya was approached by people who purported to be interested in her two rental rooms. They tricked her into giving her personal details, which they used to make away with her Sh196,ooo.
According to a statement recorded at Kibicho Police Station, the strangers told the lady that they were planning to open a chemist and a clinic.
The jubilant property owner signed an agreement with the potential clients who pretended to send her Sh8,000 rent as agreed.
However, they asked for her ID card number and M-Pesa details which they used to withdraw the cash from her mobile wallets.
According to the statement seen by the Star, apart from Equity Bank, they withdrew money from KCB M-Pesa, M-Shwari and Fuliza.
Baricho deputy OCS told the Star that they are working with counterparts from the DCI unit to trace culprits.
Early this month, Stanbic Bank was forced to halt mobile banking for some hours after scammers penetrated the system.
Just like Equity Bank, it asked customers to avoid random phone calls from persons purporting to be bank employees seeking personal data such as PIN.
Lenders have also asked customers to ensure that they set up strong passwords which include symbols, numbers, upper case and lower case characters.
"Avoid using personal information names, birthdays, or e-mail addresses, ID Numbers''.
Other measures include avoiding the storage of passwords and PINs on devices such as mobile phones or even wallets as these may be accessed by fraudsters in case such items are lost or fall in the wrong hands.
Customers have also been asked not to click links sent to them via emails, unverified social media pages or strange numbers that they cannot authenticate as genuine.
Cybersecurity has been a pain in the back for most African countries in the past years.
In Kenya for instance, cases of cyber crimes have been on the rise in the past two years as stakeholders strive to devise ways of curbing the vice.
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), reveal that cybersecurity advisories issued to companies increased by about 3,693 percent from 81,727 in 2020 to 3.1 million advisories in 2021.
Also, according to a recent ranking by Cybersecurity company Surfshark on countries’ digital well-being, Kenya was ranked position 78 globally.