How to prevent illegal sim swap
Cases of illegal sim swap have recently become a major concern as mobile money fraudsters device new ways of stealing from unsuspecting mobile phone users.
Fraudsters have now advanced to the level of registering an existing number on a new SIM card in order to intercept notifications, one-time passwords, online banking profile and transactions.
To safeguard customers from fraudulent sim swaps, mobile services provider Safaricom has introduced a self-whitelisting service where one locks their own number to ensure no one else can swap a sim card without your knowledge of the user.
All you need to do is dial *100*100# to whitelist your number. This new service is meant to ensure that a customer’s SIM card can only be replaced by visiting a Safaricom Shop or Care desk with your ID, or by calling Safaricom customer care.
The fraudsters usually use lost IDs to carry out SIM swaps without the consent of the owner.
In case of a lost ID you can still prevent illegal Sim swap where fraudsters collude with M-PESA agents to swap your sim card.
To prevent this, from happening, follow the steps below:
First, you can dial *100# and follow the prompts that allow you to report a stolen ID.
This is not all: you can do the same thing by blacklisting your SIM card from being replaced at M-PESA agents.
The only solution for you would be doing so from a Safaricom Care Centre/Shop, where it is nearly impossible to get fraudulently replacing a SIM card.
This can be done by dialing *100*100#.
We have heard of cases where SIM cards are illegally replaced to access products such as M-PESA/mobile money without the primary owners knowing about it.
Additionally, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has been asking Kenyans to re-confirm their SIM details so that they don’t get switched off as soon as the extended deadline ends at the start of October 2022.
This is important because there are millions of SIM cards that are not properly documented, and others have been fraudulently registered using bogus identification.
It is even more important because such SIM cards are used for illegal activity, including crimes such as kidnapping, mobile money fraud, or even murder.
