Detectives based in Thika have arrested a suspected sim swap fraudster.
The suspect was arrested after presenting himself to a Safaricom shop for sim replacement services while using a forged ID waiting card and a police abstract form purportedly issued by Central Police Station, Nairobi.
Upon interrogation, the man led detectives to a house in Zimmerman, Nairobi, where they recovered several items linked to his alleged vocation.
Among the items were a mobile phone used for sim registration, assorted sim replacement cards, forged police abstract forms and waiting cards bearing different names, an M-Pesa till number application booklet, several ID cards among other items.
His arrest comes after a similar one where one of his suspected accomplices was arrested on September 19 and arraigned.
She was also arrested after presenting herself to a Safaricom shop while seeking similar services as those of the new arrestee.
Police said she was using forged documents with the sole intention of stealing from her victims' mobile money wallets.
During her arrest, paper writings bearing confidential customer information were recovered from her house in Komarock, Nairobi.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations(DCI) believes that the two are a detachment of the infamous Mulot team.
The Mulot team is known for targetting individuals with large mobile money balances and once they take over the victims' phone numbers, they are able to drain off their accounts.
DCI has lauded the Safaricom attendants who alerted the police of the suspicious characters.
"The DCI thanks the keen-eyed agile Safaricom attendants who alerted the police of the suspicious characters, and invites members of the public to partner with us in bringing crime to its knees," the DCI said.
The Directorate said the manhunt for several of the aforementioned accomplices who have since been named is ongoing.
Sim swapping and banking fraud has been on the rise in the country.
In the recent past, multi-agency teams have been scrambling to deal with the gangs behind the vice.
Officials aware of the trend said the cases increase during weekends and public holidays, where millions of shillings are defrauded either from banks or mobile phones in the fraud.
In the campaign to end this, telcos have been issuing precautions to their subscribers.
For instance, Safaricom wants subscribers to dial *100*100# to whitelist their numbers to stop unintended swap.
