This archive report was first published on 15 May 2020.
May 15, 2020 - In a bid to combat SIM card registration scams, Safaricom has introduced a new extra security feature that alerts customers via SMS whenever someone tries to register a line using their national identification card.
The new feature, which comes barely a month after the Communications Authority of Kenya sent out a warning, requires Safaricom to send a consent message to the customer using the number 707, asking them to either accept or cancel the registration.
This move is aimed at preventing fraudulent use of stolen ID cards for SIM card registration, a practice that has been on the rise in Kenya.
According to the Communications Authority of Kenya, smishing - a form of phishing that uses SMS texts to trick subscribers into revealing personal information - has been on the increase, with fraudsters using the information obtained to defraud the recipient.
