A former policeman has come to the shocking realization that a group of criminals have registered 9 sim cards using his personal details; names and ID information.
That’s a huge number of criminals – big enough to deny an entire estate a good night sleep.
The question is – who would steal personal details of a former police officer and use them to register nine (9) sim cards?
Of course this may sound stupid, but that is exactly what these hardheaded meatheads have executed in Nairobi.
To make the matter worse – the officer who identified himself as Daniel Ogola – has no idea how long the syndicate has been running courtesy of his personal information.
He had no idea that criminals may have been using phone numbers registered using his personal details to transact shoddy deals – which most likely included orchestrating financial improprieties.
Shocking discovery
This could easily land him in trouble
Daniel recently took to social media to express his shock at the discovery.
His post read: “Today I went into a Telkom office to register my second Telkom line the first one being used at home as a family line. To my surprise, I couldn’t be registered as the system showed that other nine lines had been registered under my name and ID.
“The lines which I actually never knew about. I believe the same must have been registered by “wakora” maybe to solicit money from members of the public or to commit other crimes not known to me.
“I lost my ID back in 2019 and maybe they are using it. The lines have now been de-registered. My next stop will now be Safcom and Airtel offices.”
It is not uncommon
When this journalist reached Daniel for comment, he said: “According to their policy they allow customers to register up to ten lines. Now that I wanted to register another line, I went to their shop in Wajir and that’s where I realised that my ID had been used to register other nine lines which I knew nothing about.
“From there I deduced that someone must be using the ID I lost some times back in 2019. The only thing I did was to write a letter there for deregistration.
“Maybe Telkom need to take the Safcom path of informing customers through their original lines whenever they want to register other lines.
“That’s all. I’m not suing anyone neither am I reporting the matter to Police,”
Contacted Telkom
When reached for comment, a Telcom officer wrote an email saying:
“Telkom’s customer registration process is dictated by a very clear set of Know-Your-Customer (KYC) guidelines. All telcos work together to review their respective KYCs and share best approaches, to ensure that they are reflective of best practice.
“Telkom also verifies customer identification details using the government’s Integrated Population Registration Services (IPRS) data base, before proceeding to register any customer onto the network.
“Our customer on-boarding process also undergoes continuous review, to help eliminate any potential fraudulent activity. We also work closely with the requisite security agencies, reporting suspected cases of unauthorized access to customer documentation (IDs or Passports) that may be used to register a line with the intent of committing fraud or any other activity that is against the law.
“We continue to call upon our customers and Kenyans to inform us, should they suspect that their identification details have been used to gain access to telephony services without their consent, to enable us take the necessary legal action.”
Fraudsters
There have been rising cases of fraud involving use of mobile phone. In most cases, criminal use other people’s ID details to register phone numbers which they then use to execute criminal activities.
Kenyans have been asked to exercise utmost caution, and also report to the police whenever they lose their IDs and other details. It would not hurt to occasionally try to find out the status of your phone numbers from your mobile service provider every so often.