A Fuliza Fraud Scheme that went on for almost a year, making Safaricom Lose over Ksh500m, the suspects have been caught,

Nakuru Police have nabbed eight suspects behind the 500M Fuliza Fraud.

According to the police, the high-level gang was found in possession of 123,00 new mobile phones numbers opted into a Fuliza in January 2022.

“Isaack Kipkemoi, Maxwell Ributhu, Gideon Rono, Gedion Kirui, Moses Rono, Collins Kipyegon and Edwin Cheruiyot were arrested at the apartment In Kiamuni, while the ring leader Peter Gitahi was arrested in Kitale, Trans Nzoia following the ultra-carefulness of the officers.

‘The young men who were found in possession of thousands of Safaricom and Airtel  SIM cards  were using fake generated identity card numbers to register SIM cards before proceeding to borrow money through the application,” police said in a statement.

Discovery Of The Fraud

Detectives began investigations into this well-planned fraud scheme after, a report was filed to the banking Fraud Investigations Unit(BFIU) in August 2022, After the managers of the fund discovered unusual spike in Fuliza loan uptakes that were way above their performance scale and the borrowers had not repaid the loan.

According to the detectives from BFIU, over 123,000 new mobile phone opted into Fuliza and took up loans in January 2022.

Since then, the sim cards were either destroyed or switched off and efforts to reach the customers turned futile.

“It is after investigations that the detectives realized that the SIM cards had been registers falsely by one of the suspects identified as Peter Gitahi, who is is said to have main access to the National Registration Bureau database, where he develops falsified identity numbers used in high profile Fraud,”

How they Operated

Further investigations indicated that, after acquiring the new numbers and registering the lines, Peter would sell them  to his accomplices based in Nakuru who would then commit the crime.

Moreover, the detectives revealed that some of the SIM cards registered as Safaricom agents where the borrowed funds would be deposited to  personal bank accounts belonging to the suspects, disguised as M-pesa funds.

“The seemingly industrious suspects would initially borrow money and repay thereby improving their credit scores, until the SIM card achieved their limits when they would borrow for the last time before disposing the lines.”

One identity card would be used to register 5 SIM cards in the daring SIM scam erupted by the young men, aged between 24-30 Years,” Police narrated.

The gang whose efforts bore fruits, live in a large apartment at Kiamunyi, managed to acquire two brand new Subaru’s, One Toyota Mark X, Toyota Pro-box and two motorbikes for easy movements.

During the operation the detectives recovered 14 mobicom phones used in the registering MPESA user SIM cards, 6 laptops, over 40 mobile phones, 7 routers, assorted Safaricom line , over 1000 Safaricom subscribers registration forms, over 200 ATM cards from all major banks , car agreements among other exhibits.

Detectives are currently interrogating the suspects for more insights into the high level fraud before presenting them before a judge.

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