Communication Authority of Kenya through its Director General Mr. Francis Wangusi has today alerted mobile phone users on the sim card swap fraud.
The Communication Authority has warned against disclosure of personal identifiable information leading to sim card swap.
Personal Identifiable Information refers to any information that can be distinguished or used to trace and individual identity such as mobile money pin, bank account pin and national ID number among others.
Sim card swap usually occurs when a fraudster calls an unsuspecting client pretending to be an employee of a mobile network operator. The fraudster then request the subscriber for his/her Personal Identifiable Information such as the pin which they then use to access all the sim services including mobile money, bank account, SMS, data services and any other service that can be accessed through the sim card.
The CA is therefore advising the public to be vigilant and put in place the below measure:
1. Be cautious not to respond to calls or email asking for their personal information such as bank account pin, mobile money pin and others.
2. Delete any request for financial information or password as any request of such nature is a scam.
3. Fraudsters tend to push someone to act first. In case you are in such a situation, kindly slow down and think. It’s a scam.
4. Do your own research about a company or organization first.
5. Ignore requests for help as organizations or companies do not call people asking for help.
6. Report such cases to the nearest police station for action to be taken.