M-PESA is Africa’s most successful mobile money service and the preferred method for money transfers and making payments. More than 42 million people in Kenya can access the platform, which provides a safe, secure and affordable way to conduct transactions.

As it grew over the last 14 years, M-PESA has also become a target for fraudsters to dupe subscribers into giving out their personal data, which they use to get ways of withdrawing money from their mobile money accounts.

Fraud is dynamic and the most prevalent types of fraud schemes are impersonations and extortion messages. Fraudsters frequently use social engineering, where fraudsters build customers’ trust and use that to dupe them, while Sim Swaps and using lines from other networks to confuse the customer are also common.

Dealing with fraud cases demands that Safaricom works with the authorities to go after the fraudsters and putting in place the necessary infrastructure and tools to flag suspicious transactions.

There is also a lot that a customer can do to avoid falling into the fraud trap and the attendant processes, which involves making calls, filling forms and even going to record the crime at police stations.

Patrick Kinoti, Safaricom’s Head of Fraud, shares steps for customers to keep themselves safe from being defrauded and in the event they are defrauded, the steps to follow to report.