Safaricom M-PESA Fraudsters and Scams You Need to Be Aware of
Instructions for fake reversal
Customers are directed to the nearest agent so that fraudsters can exploit the customer’s number to deceive the agent by posing as customer service.
M-PESA Reversal is the procedure of returning money to someone who may have sent you money by mistake.In this scenario, fraudsters steer a customer to the nearest agent so that they can impersonate customer service and scam the agent. Customer service will never phone you and tell you to go to the nearest agent for a refund.
M-PESA message that is fake or old
Safaricom customers have reported this as one of the most common scams they’ve encountered. The ‘new M-PESA balance’ would be viewed as *LOCKED* in an ordinary M-PESA message. Even if the sender requests it, don’t phone back the sender’s number or try to reverse the money that was delivered incorrectly.
It’s important to note that an authentic M-PESA message comes from M-PESA, not a customer’s line.
Request that the sender forward the message to 456 or contact Safaricom for assistance instead of refunding the money.
If you receive a fraudulent message, forward it to 333 to guarantee that the numbers are blacklisted and that other customers are not cheated.
USSD fraud with M-PESA
M-PESA consumers are targeted by fraudsters who tell them to pay money via USSD to a fake number.
USSD is a text messaging protocol that allows a mobile device to send a text message to a network application software.
Fraudsters have honed their skills at capturing mobile banking data as it travels via the airwaves.