Equity Bank, Kenya’s biggest bank, was the target of a debit card fraud in which the perpetrators stole $2.1 million. According to a letter sent to the Directorate of Criminal Investigation, the stolen funds were moved to over 500 bank and mobile money accounts. The bank has restricted all accounts that received those funds.
A fraud detective at the DCI confirmed the incident to TechCabal and claimed 19 persons were arrested in connection with the fraud.
Equity Bank declined to comment.
Three sources with knowledge of the investigation said the perpetrators executed a “card-not-present” scam to steal money from victims. While this type of fraud typically involves using stolen card details to shop online, fraudsters often create websites and route payments to those websites to access funds in those cards. Those funds are then moved to other bank accounts.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that between 09/04/2024 and 15/04/2024, KES 179.6 million ($1.3 million) was paid out from the GL fraudulently to the 551 Equity Bank accounts,” a letter signed by Gerald Munyiri, Equity’s general manager security said.
“KES 63 million…
Adonijah Ndege
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https://techcabal.com/2024/04/17/equity-bank-hit-by-2-1-million-debit-card-fraud/
