Safaricom has introduced a new code to prevent sim swap scams that have been on the rise in recent weeks.
According to Safaricom, customers can now block sim swap by dialing 100100# on their Safaricom line. This means that any replacement of the sim card will have to be done directly at a Safaricom Customer Care centre, rather than at an M-Pesa agent.
Sim swap scams have been a major concern, with several high-profile cases reported in recent weeks. In one case, a senior police officer lost Sh. 600,000 after his mobile line was swapped, while another victim lost Sh. 2.6 million.
Farah Bashir, a medical laboratory scientist, was a victim of sim swap scam. He received an alert informing him that he had requested a sim card swap, which he did not initiate. He then tried to access his M-Pesa account, but was unable to do so. His sim card had already been swapped, and he had lost Sh. 150,000 from his Kenyan currency account, as well as $17,451 and Sh. 231,000 from his dollar and sterling pound accounts respectively.
With the new code, Safaricom aims to prevent such scams by making it more difficult for criminals to initiate a sim swap request from rogue agents.
