Conmen using First Lady’s name in online cash swindle arrested

Detectives in Kilifi are holding two Nigerian nationals who have been using fake Facebook accounts of prominent Kenyans, among them First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, to swindle unsuspecting victims of millions of shillings.

Timothy Ogba Ebakole and Alex Olesugun Adebayo devised elaborate con games disguised as philanthropic ventures, preying on dozens of social media users, many of them poor job-seekers. They will be among the first to be tried under the recently enacted Cybercrimes Law.

Apart from the First Lady, other notable names used in the duo’s fraudulent schemes are Kilifi County Senator Stewart Madazyo and his Bomet counterpart Christopher Langat.

Kilifi Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCIO) Christopher Chesoli said his officers tracked the mobile phone number the suspects were using to Kayole in Nairobi and locked them up.  

FAKE FACE BOOK ACCOUNT

Addressing the press at Mtwapa police station where the two are being held, Mr Madzayo said the two created a fake Facebook account in his name, and then used it to demand money from unsuspecting Kilifi residents.

He said the Nigerians even placed calls to people while passing themselves off as the Senator and demanded money to process bursary forms and other funds from the government.

“Even as we speak now, there are people calling and asking why I have not given them bursaries even after giving out between Sh10,000 and Sh20,000,” he said.

Mr Madzayo said Mr Ebakole uses several aliases in his Facebook account such as Mike David, John Caplain, Ananga Ouma, and Kennedy Mutwotwa. Together with his accomplice, they had created a Facebook page known as “Sen Stewart Madzayo.”

“On the said Facebook account they announced that my office in partnership with the national government is giving out loans under the Kenya Government 2017/2018 Empowerment Loan for Entrepreneurship. This is not true because my office does not have such engagement,” Mr Madzayo said.

SEND MONEY

The same people would then call their victims and send them the forms to fill. When the forms were returned, they would call to ask the victims to send money for the processing of their forms.

After sending the loan application forms complete with an official government letterhead, the suspects would then send the “loan agreement forms” to the victims for signing. In the final act, they would call their victims and demand processing and insurance fees for the loans.

“This scam is created in an elaborate way so that the victims believe that it is me who is issuing the loan and this has brought a lot of embarrassment from my people because Kilifi residents think that the money obtained from them is pocketed by my office staff which is totally wrong,” Mr Madzayo said.

The Kilifi police chief said numerous Kenyans had fallen to the scheme.

“Even as we speak now, the phone is still receiving a lot of mobile money messages and we believe that many more people who have fallen victim to the two are still sending their money. We believe that they have received millions of shillings from the public,” said Mr Chesoli.

EMPOWERMENT LOAN

He said the duo used a form called Kenya Government 2018 Empowerment Loan for Entrepreneurs (Nationwide) purporting that it had come from the office of the First Lady in conjunction with USAID to give out loans to Kenyans. The letter has an emblem and a seal of the Kenya government.

“That is the form that was being used by the suspects to lure their victims, as they sent it to them to fill and then pay a loan processing fee of between Sh10,000 and Sh20,000,” Mr Chesoli told the Sunday Nation.

“After the victims filled the loan application, and emailed back, the suspects then would email them the loan agreement form for the victims to sign and email back. None of these purported loans were genuine,” he said.

The police chief said that when they launched investigations, they discovered that the Nigerian con artists had also targeted the Bomet Senator. He said that seven people have recorded statements with the police and many more are expected to show up following the arrests.

COMPLETE INVESTIGATIONS

The two suspects were taken to court on Friday but the investigators asked for another seven days to hold them while they complete the investigations. The DCIO said one of the Nigerians has an expired passport and is in the country illegally.

This is not the first time that Kenyans are being swindled through elaborate online scams. For the past six months, a Facebook page called Get Jobs Kenya has been falsely advertising for jobs in local and international companies.

Some of the organisations targeted by the cons are World Vision, the United Nations, supermarket chain Carrefour, Kenya Airways, the Standard Gauge Railways project and Tullow Oil among others.

The targets of the scams are those with low or middle level academic qualifications, either certificate or diploma holders, who are mostly looking for jobs as cleaners, security guards, technicians, drivers, administration assistants among others.

MASS RECRUITMENT

Salaries offered in the adverts range from Sh20,000 to Sh40, 000. One is required to pay Sh310 as registration fee after filling out a simple online application form.

In one instance, on January 17, the page placed an advertisement on Facebook account claiming there was “Urgent mass recruitment by World Vision Kenya.”  It claimed that the organisation was in the process of establishing branches in all 47 counties, but first was looking for volunteers to help in data collection by filling questionnaires in every ward in the country.

 “We are recruiting 7 people per ward in every county based on first come first serve basis,” the advert said. The qualifications were simple: one must be 18 years and above, be conversant with English, Kiswahili and the local language and be a holder of Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education certificate (KCSE).

Training of shortlisted candidates was to take place across the country on January 30 and 31 while the work was to begin on  February 2 and go on for a month until March 2.  The registration fee was Sh350.

UNEMPLOYMENT

Given the high unemployment levels in the country, many desperate Kenyans must have tried their luck, without knowing that they were only enriching conmen.

A notice on World Vision’s (Kenya) websites cautions against the schemes. “It has come to our attention that several agencies or persons, are claiming to be acting on World Vision’s behalf in recruiting or facilitating the recruitment of personnel.

“World Vision wishes to advise the public in unconditional terms that: (it) does not outsource its recruitment process to any organisation or agency which, through website postings, mass e-mail messages, newsletters or otherwise claims to be doing recruitment on its behalf.”

When the Sunday Nation contacted the managers of the Get Jobs Kenya site, they took down their Facebook page within minutes.