Bomet County in South West Kenya has a reputation for being home to a large concentration of comms criminals, so it came as no surprise that police in the county arrested 10 suspects during a single raid in December. The arrestees are alleged to use social engineering to conduct SIM swaps before raiding each victim’s mobile money wallets and taking out loans in their name.
The raid at premises in Olbutyo trading center also yielded used and unused SIM cards, plus 11 national identity cards which were believed to have been stolen from their rightful owners. The Nation reported that the police also confiscated hand-written exercise books full of the names of likely victims, mobile phone numbers, SIM card PIN numbers, and the limits for Fuliza mobile money overdrafts and Kenya Commercial Bank M-PESA loans.
Criminals have reportedly moved their operations to Bomet from other parts of Kenya because they believe there is less chance of local law enforcement pursuing them. This raid illustrates the benefits of direct action by law enforcement, but also the danger represented by one weak link in the police chain. Comms criminals can work from any location, so they migrate to wherever the police are failing to do their job. Even if Bomet police keep up the pressure on comms crooks, any which remain at large will find a new base of operation before long.
