Times of Covid, economic restrictions, curfews in Kenya where some people try to invent more or less legitimate ways to earn their bread.
We have long been accustomed to attempts at extortion by text message.
One of the most popular is what happens through fake messages from Mpesa (some time ago we had already warned our readers who frequent Kenya with this article http://malindikenya.net/it/articoli/notizie/ultime-notizie/kenya-occhio-alle-truffe-dei-finti-mpesa-.html).
These days this kind of scam is coming back into vogue.
Here's how it works: usually a text message arrives with a text identical to those sent by Safaricom Mpesa's service to send money.
"MPESA ODG1LIPNX1 Confirmed.You have received Ksh XXXX (may be 5 to 10 thousand shillings) from XXXX (a Kenyan name)
21/4/20 New M-PESA balance is *(LOOCKED)* Pay bills via M-PESA".
You have to be careful, because the number that sends them is a private number, not the Mpesa service number. Sometimes the message may be preceded by a silent call or with poorly understood words, especially for those who do not know the Swahili language.
So the first warning is not to call the number that appears, perhaps with the intention of telling the person who sent money to the wrong person.
If you ignore the message, you will probably get a call from a landline number (it could be an 020 in Nairobi), and a separate voice in English will call you by name and tell you that it is the Safaricom central office and that you have received a wrong credit.
If you try to unmask the "fake" the fake phone operator will pass you a supposed colleague who will try to make some excuse, for example that the credit comes from another phone company and tell you that the Mpesa account is blocked until you return the money. That's obviously not true.
Thanks to the report of a reader who went in person to Safaricom's offices, the number from which the call came was recognized as that of fraudsters.
So be careful, especially the first message that does not come from Mpesa!