Beware of Fraud Mpesa Text Messages

I received a SMS message telling me that I had received 2,350 from one Peter Sang via Safaricom's Mpesa. A minute later I got a phone call. Some guy, in a heavily Kalenjin accent, was on the line asking if he had sent money accidentally to my phone.

Mpesa Conmen - Fraudulent SMS

I calmly told him that, yes, I had received his stupid little message and that I was using it to track him, which I am not sure sounded convincing - he hung up. Anyway, what am saying is that these cases are on the rise, and sometimes can catch you offguard.

How To Know A Fake Mpesa Message

It's really simple, all Mpesa message have MPESAas the sender. In "Peter Sang"'s case the sender was 0703275802, the same number he called me with. Over at Techweez, Martin explains how some guys tried to con him out of 8,630 back in January. And how they asked him to "enter a code to reverse the transaction".

Just Be Alert:

• Make sure any MPESA transaction is from MPESA- believe me in the hit of the moment you may not notice this, and whats more there might be a heart rending story to accompany it.
• Safaricom will never ask you to key in a number in order to reroute messages or MPESA transaction, unless of course you call the customer care number yourself and such information is given to you.
• Also be ware of people who send you some apparently confidential messages and then call you saying they’d sent it to the wrong number and then plead with you to delete it, then start calling to ‘reward you’ for cooperating with them . Many times the messages are about financial or import transactions. I know someone in the office once received such a message. This is a fraud

- Read the whole post on Techweez: Beware this con-game with M-pesa

REPORT MPESA CONMEN

Forward the sent message to Safaricom's Fraud Reporting Line: 333.