The Communication Authority of Kenya has urged the public to exercise caution and ignore messages from unscrupulous persons sending messages to trick recipients into divulging their personal information.
In a statement, the communication’s watchdog says this type of scam, known as smishing, involves fraudsters sending SMS texts purporting to originate from a reputable company with the purpose of luring subscribers to share their personal information.
Acting Director General Communication Authority Mercy Wanjau on Thursday said that in this case the fraudsters are purporting to be part of the authority and are cautioning recipients that they have exceeded the maximum numbers of sim cards allowed per subscriber.
The fraudsters are equally creating and sharing links on social media where they can trick the subscribers into sharing their ID, usernames, passwords, PIN and credit card details to steal money from them.
“The messages are crafted to appear as originating from Communications Commission of Kenya, the predecessor of Communication Authority of Kenya. A telephone number is also provided purportedly to enable recipients secure further assistance,” said Wanjau.
“We wish to urge the public to ignore these messages as they do not emanate from CA but from criminals who are out to trick recipients,” she added.
The acting DG further told Kenyans that mobile operators are the only entities authorized to register sim cards.
“As the ICT sector regulatory agency CA would therefore have no business seeking personal information from mobile subscribers for purposes of registration,” reads the statement.
CA has, therefore, reminded consumers to report similar cases to the National KE-CIRT/CC via incidents @ke-cirt or through hotlines 0703042700 or 0730172700.
