Safaricom Partner Banks To Stop Sim-Swap Frauds

In recent years, a surge of fraudulent activities in Kenya has left many citizens in distress, as they lose their hard-earned money stored in bank accounts. Suspected fraudsters, allegedly working with telecommunication company employees, have gained notoriety for tricking unsuspecting victims into revealing their PINs linked to their bank accounts. These fraudsters then wipe clean their bank accounts, leaving many Kenyans in financial turmoil.

To curb this vice and protect innocent Kenyans, Safaricom has signed up 6 banks to its SIM-Swap-Check Anti-fraud solution. The solution provides banks with an API (Application Programming Interface) through which they can query when a customer’s SIM card was last swapped. The information then enables them to make a decision on the likelihood of a customer’s transaction being fraudulent and additional steps to be applied.

“The rapid growth of Kenya’s fintech sector has been accompanied by a rapidly evolving threat environment targeting both customers and fintech operators. It is therefore necessary for different players to partner around innovations that protect customers and their funds to safeguard the gains made. At Safaricom, we have developed SIM-Swap-Check and ATM Vicinity Check solutions that we have made available to banks to empower them to reduce fraudulent transactions,” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Safaricom.

The SIM-Swap-Check solution provides banks with a free monthly quota of checks and a premium tier for additional checks above the free quota. Safaricom says the solution was developed following an analysis of fraud reports to tackle the social engineering of customers to conduct fraudulent SIM swaps.

In addition to the SIM Swap Solution, Safaricom is also providing banks with an ATM Vicinity Check solution that ensures an ATM withdrawal can only be conducted if the transacting customer is in the same location as the ATM. The ATM Vicinity Check solution is offered at no cost.