Scams on Safaricom

I have to say before I start this story that I have missed all of you immensely and I am ready to take you through my journey. Over the weekend I was called by a certain number telling me that I have won some money and I need to call them back with two different numbers. I knew immediately this is a scam because I hadn't entered into any competition and I saw this happening to my friend. It wasn't my first time on the rodeo. In the beginning I wanted to brush of the caller and continue with my day but I was curious to know how they are able to dupe people.

 
The guy who was speaking was very professional and very collected. I tried confusing him here and there by speaking in English then rapidly switching to Kiswahili. Sadly this didn't work but at the end he kind of caught on that I was on to him and he gave me an ultimatum. He said if I don't want the money I should hang up so that he could give to somebody else. At this point in the conversation I was getting bored and decided to let it go and call Safaricom to warn them about the fraudsters. I don't know if they will follow it up but I do hope they do.

 
Being scammed these days is so easy on the phone, let me not say easy but I can see how people can get away with conning someone. Here is an experience told to me via a whatsapp group:

I cannot stop myself from sharing this with all of you. It all started when I received a call from someone claiming that he was from my mobile service provider and he asked me to shutdown my phone for 2 hours for 3G update to take place. As I was rushing for a meeting, I did not question and shutdown my cell phone. After 45 minutes I felt very suspicious since the caller did not even introduce his name. I quickly turned on my cell phone and I saw several missed calls from my family members and the others were from the number that had called me earlier. I called my parents and I was shocked that they sounded very worried asking me whether I am safe. My parents told me that they had received a call from someone claiming that they had me with them and asking for money to let me free. The call was so real and my parents even heard 'my voice' crying out loud asking for help. My parent was at the bank waiting for next call to proceed for money transfer. I told my parents that I am safe and asked them to lodge a police report.

Right after that I received another call from the guy asking me to shutdown my cell phone for another 1 hour which I refused to do and hung up. They keep calling my cell phone until the battery had run down. I myself lodged a police report and I was informed by the officer that there were many such scams reported. MOST of the cases reported that the victim had already transferred the money! And it is impossible to get back the money.

Be careful as this kind of scam might happen to any of us!!! Those guys are so professional and very convincing during calls. If you are asked to shut down your cell phone for updates by the service provider, ASK AROUND! Your family or friends might receive the same call.

 

 
After reading that story I became paranoid and I was afraid that could happen to any one of us. I think we should all be careful and help spread the word.