Someone has just forwarded this to me and I decided to share with you guys.

This incident happened to a colleague recently.A bad experience indeed.

He received a call from someone claiming to be calling from Safaricom.The caller was very composed.

The caller told him 'thank you for being our loyal and valuable MPESA customer.You recall we had initially given you a black Sim card but changed to green".He answered in the affirmative.The caller then went ahead to tell him that Safaricom was running a reward promotion scheme for their loyal MPESA customers and went ahead to ask him to confirm his National ID number and year of birth.Unsuspecting,he disclosed that information.Coincidentally his birth year was also his Mpesa pin no.

The guy posed for a while and asked him whether 19- - (say 1967) was his year of birth .He again answered in the affirmative.

The caller then told him he would be sent Nokia 8230, but before then he needed to dial *33*0000# ,which he did.He was then told not to call or transact anything using his line for the next ten minutes as they perfrom transactions,purportedly at Safaricom,facilitating the process of receiving the Nokia 8230 set.He complied.He is asked about his current location,which information he gives.

After 10 minutes he tried to call back the number to confirm status of the alleged gift only for the following message to appear :"Barring all outgoing calls activated for SMS services activated for all data circuit async".

After 15 minutes the wife calls him on his alternate line claiming that some one had called her using his (husband"s ) safaricom line telling her to send them Ksh.10,000 for his release from arrest.She is baffled and hence decides to use alternate line,only to discover he is safe and sound.

In the meantime the wife calls safaricom to block the line,but it was too late,as all the money in his MPESA had been withdrawn.

What is apparent is that this line was blocked by the code he typed ,viz *33*0000#.

The question uppermost in mind is how it could be unblocked without some form of connivance by Safaricom staff.He had a substantial amount in his Mpesa account.Could these thugs be getting targeting lines-with good balances through connivance with Safaricom staff.

It is unlikely Safaricom will admit culpability,but tujichunge wenyewe.Keep safe.

The caller identified himself as Alex Omondi(Of course fake name) and called using 0720 464 777 0720 464 777

Guys,kaeni chonjo sana

a perfect wake up call

Atiriri...

The code you are referring to is an international code for barring outgoing calls and is not unique to Safcom. Anyone with an interest in telecomms would know that. The thieves did not need any inside help to carry out this fraud.

Its a matter of being aware... Any promotion by Safcom or any other company for that matter would be in the papers and would have explicit instructions on how to get your reward.... not typing funny codes...

Its like those guys who used to be cheated into sambazaiing viz... "you have won a big black car. To claim your prize key in *140*1000*07xxxxxxxxxx#".... and then they cry foul pesa ikienda...