Nairobi News

News

Red Alert! Conmen in bogus bank promotion on prowl

By BILLY MUIRURI December 5th, 2013 1 min read

CBD.

Customers of Equity Bank are losing money from their mobile phones to a cartel of con artists posing as the bank employees.

The conmen are luring unsuspecting customers by sending them messages informing them they have won Sh100,000 in an ongoing promotion dubbed, Boresha Maisha na Equity Bank.

They then lead one through a series of questions that end up asking one to send one’s M-Pesa PIN.

A stern warning that you should not send any money is a rider that has duped customers that the instructions are genuine.

However, the conmen ask leading questions and once you send your PIN, they withdraw the money from Equity ATMs.

One of the messages reads, “ Boresha Maisha na Equity Bank. Umezawadiwa Sh100,000 na Equity Mashinani. Kwa maelezo zaidi, piga 0786 121999. Onyo! Usitume pesa zozote (Improve your life with Equity Bank. You have won Sh100,000 in the ongoing Equity Mashinani promotion. For more information, call 0786 121999. Warning! Do not send any money).”

Equity Bank has now disowned the promotion and dismissed it as work of con artists at Kamiti Maximum Prison. A senior staff at the bank, Mr David Mwangi, confirmed:

“Customers have been conned. We are not running that promotion and preliminary investigations have traced the numbers to Kamiti Maximum Prison.” He said the bank never asks for PIN numbers.