Photo Credit: Equity Bank
Detectives, on Tuesday 16, arrested 19 suspects in a probe into a massive debit card fraud. Equity Bank lost a massive amount KSh290 million($2.1M). The suspects were arrested by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation’s Banking Fraud Investigation Unit (BFIU).
They were taken for grilling ahead of planned arraignment and recovery. The bank’s risk department discovered an upsurge of transactions emanating from the banks Incoming MasterCard GL.
Preliminary investigations revealed that in the period, Sh 179.6 million was paid out from the GL fraudulently to 551 Equity Bank accounts.
Additionally, according to investigations, Sh63 million was sent to Safaricom M-Pesa and Sh39 million to 11 commercial banks. The police and the bank are working with Safaricom and the respective banks to assist in tracing the movement and safeguarding the funds even as other suspects are being sought.
In the meantime the bank has liened Sh60.7 million in the 551 accounts.
This comes days after the National Assembly approved the regulations that will provide a framework to monitor, detect and respond to cybersecurity threats within Kenya’s cyberspace and ensure the protection of the critical information structure.
The Computer Misuse and Cybercrime (Critical Information Infrastructure and Cybercrime Management) Regulations, 2024 was approved after it was subjected to months of public participation.
Known as Legal Notice No. 44 of 2024, the regulations were drafted by the National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee (NC4) to operationalize the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, 2018.
The key aspects the CMCA Regulations address include protection measures for critical information infrastructure supporting critical economic sectors including telecoms, banking, transport and energy sectors, cybersecurity operations management using cybersecurity operations centers and cybercrimes management.
According to a letter, the attack took place between April 9 and 15, when the bank detected an abnormally high movement of cash from certain accounts.
“In the early hours of 15 April, the bank’s risk department detected an increase in transactions originating from the bank’s inbound Mastercard GL,” said Gerald Munyiri, Equity’s general manager for security and investigations, in the letter.
According to the central bank, bank card fraud occurs in a number of ways, including phishing, where fraudsters send an email or text message that appears to be from your bank or a reputable financial institution.
