Police busts racket of mobile money conmen

By Jeff Andrew Lule

POLICE in Kampala have busted a racket of mobile money conmen who have been robbing people through mobile money transactions.

The 20 suspects who are detained at Kampala Central Police Station (CPS) were are arrested over the weekend from Busabala, in a Police operation.

Addressing a Police weekly press briefing at CPS, Kampala Metropolitan spokesperson, Ibin Ssenkumbi said the arrests followed complaints from various people being robbed of their money to unknown people using mobile money.

“We received complaints from the public and we decided to track the numbers and got the suspects in Busabala. These people had established a centre where they operate,” he said.

He said the culprits send messages and instantly call the victims and bombard them with instructions on how to forward the money to another number without giving the victim time to think.

The culprits also use vulnerable situations to persuade the victims.

“They tell you the money  was for medication of their relatives and immediately give  you another number where to send the money,” Ssenkumbi noted.

“The messages always contains huge sums of money ranging between sh600, 000/= and sh2m. They promise victims huge commissions. Because of this victims send money from their account out of excitement without substantiating their accounts,” he added.

Police is still hunting other members of the click who are still at large.

Ssenkumbi attributed the cause to irregular sim card registration exercise by the various telecom companies.

“Many people registered fake names and photos. We even find problems of tracking them,” he said.

He called on all stakeholders to verify all those who registered as per their forms.