Ever Heard Of A Dead Man Stealing From Another Dead Man?

Ever heard of a dead man stealing from another dead man? That was the case with Reverent Peter Kania Kariuki, the PCEA Secretary-General who died of Covid-19 on July 26, 2020, and Nairobi businessman Amos Ngata Muiruri. A tale of two deads stealing from each other.

Amos Ngata Muiruri died after a botched surgery on November 22, 2020. Both men died at the Nairobi Hospital. A week after Ngata was buried on December 2, 2020, his son discovered that the father’s telephone which he used for mobile bank transactions when he was alive had suddenly gone dead.

The son reported the matter to Safaricom and the line was reverted to the family. They discovered that more than 2.8 million shillings had been stolen through the NCBA App, the Eazzy Banking app, and the MCo-op cash app.

The children visited the banks and confirmed the cash had been transferred to a different telephone number. They reported the theft to DCI headquarters.

Detectives from the DCI became more puzzled when it emerged that the telephone number which was used to clean up Ngata’s bank accounts was the registered line of Reverent Kania before he died. The scammers had also stolen 500,000 from Rev Kania’s bank.

Unknown to Reverent Kania’s family, the telephone line he used before he died had been used to steal money from the late Ngata and many other Kenyans.

Subsequent joint investigations by the Operations Branch, Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB), and Special Service Unit (SSU) have since opened a can of worms. Detectives uncovered graves that mark the dark world of the modern, lethal, and high-tech phone scammers.

It is through Ngata’s phone that detectives made a breakthrough in the SIM-swap fraud through which the dead and the living have lost millions of shillings. They target wealthy individuals. They also target telephone lines of the elderly and those who have traveled abroad.

The telephone lines of those that fall in that category have minimal chances of raising suspicion. They normally strike soon after the person dies and before the family establishes the exact wealth in the deceased’s bank accounts.

In a successful SIM swap scam, the cybercriminals hijack the victim’s cell phone number and use it to gain access to his/her sensitive personal data and bank accounts through the Mobile Banking Apps available on Android and other smartphones.

Once they take control of the swapped SIM card, the crooks insert it in their phone, access the financial accounts, and transfer all the funds to other scammed telephone numbers. Once the cash is withdrawn, they switch off the stolen cards frustrating efforts by detectives to track them down.

Detectives have established that dozens of other Kenyans have been defrauded by the multi-faced gang. The DCI appeals to anyone who has fallen victim to the SIM swapping syndicate to report to the Operations Branch at the DCI headquarters.

Five prime suspects have been arrested over the syndicate and they’ll be charged at Nairobi’s Milimani Law Courts. More suspects are being tracked down.

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About the story

This story is as told by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation with minor edits to make it flow.