Mobile phone scams and theft. Don’t be a victim!

By Kevin Njoroge
As history has shown, the nifty technological advances that make our daily lives better, easier and more efficient are often the target for unscrupulous scammers who swindle the hard earned money of unsuspecting, innocent individuals. These scams typically involve a promise for better life, prosperity and financial security. In Kenya, the scams usually revolve around job vacancies, military recruitments and corporate promotions the likes of OMO Pick-a-Box, Nation Media Utahama Lini Promotion, and Ponyoka Na Pick-up among others.

Among the latest additions to the list is the Feelanga Free/Mpesa ATM withdrawal scam. Unlike the traditional Mpesa scams that required you to send money for various reasons, such as to process or make arrangements for your lottery winning, job vacancies placements, travel to Mombasa for a given job, name it, this latest approach involves tricking you into withdrawing cash from an ATM while you are actually not at the ATM. And what follows? Someone will take the cash dispensed and whom do you guess that person is gonna be?