Police has arrested seven people for allegedly defrauding over five billion Shillings through the online banking system in Kampala.
Charles Twine the CID Spokespperson identified the suspects as; Fred Sitakyange, Ephraim Bagambe, Allan Juuko, Bairon Ndyamuhaki, Peter Katumba, Erasmus Mutambi and Ronald Bashijja.
The suspects were picked up in separate intelligence led-operations that were conducted at Mutaasa-Kafeero arcade, E-Tower building, and Cooper-Complex in Kampala on Wednesday and Thursday, following reports about a group of people who were fraudulently drawing money from various personal accounts.
The suspects allegedly call targeted victims pretending to be employees of telecom companies who want to upgrade customer’s sim-cards for better performance. In the p
rocess, they trick them into releasing their passwords, and subsequently hack into the online banking system.
Some of the victims say that they had never subscribed to any online banking service, but their money was withdrawn through the same platforms.
Police says the fraudsters use the information they get to manipulate phones and access other services including registering for online banking, in the event that the owner of the phone is not registered.
Over 800 million Shillings from different accounts in Equity Bank was stolen this month and several other banks had together reported thefts amounting to five billion Shillings over the last three months.
Twine says they have registered other cases from other banks that have lost money, between 3-7 billion shillings using the same method by these fraudsters.
“We’re currently tracing other suspects still at large” he said.
He further noted that the suspects have recorded statements as part of the investigations and that they will appear before the courts on charges of fraud. He says police have created robust teams to trace and apprehend such criminals.
