This archive report was first published on 18 May 2020.
On May 18, 2020, Safaricom announced a new initiative to combat SIM card fraud, which has been on the rise. The company will now notify its subscribers every time a new SIM is registered using their national identity card.
This move is aimed at preventing fraudsters from hijacking people's identities to avoid detection and apprehension by the authorities. In the past, subscribers had to contact Safaricom's customer service team to check if there were any additional numbers associated with their identity, but there was no way to stop new numbers from being linked without their consent.
With the new feature, subscribers will receive an alert from 707 whenever a new SIM is linked to their ID. They will have the option to approve or deny the association. If they are aware of the registration, they can simply respond with 'YES' to complete the process. However, if they are not aware that someone is registering a new SIM using their identity, they can respond with 'NO' to stop the fraudster in their tracks.
While this new feature is a welcome step, Safaricom should also explore an easier way for users to quickly check the number of lines already associated with their ID numbers.
