By Our Reporter
WORLD
Equity Bank, Kenya has just reported a whooping loss of Kshs179,677, 736 million through Card fraud transactions spanning through a period of 9th April to 15th April, 2024.
According to a letter signed off by Gerald Munyiri, the General Manager of Security & Investigations at Equity Bank and addressed to the Banking Fraud Department of DCI, the money was paid out to 551 Equity Bank account holders.
Munyiri says that the fraudulent activity was discovered on Monday, 15th April, 2024 after the bank’s risk department noticed an upsurge of transactions emanating from the Bank’s Incoming Master Card GL.
“Early on April 15, 2024, the bank’s risk department discovered an upsurge of transactions emanating from the bank’s incoming MasterCard GL. Preliminary investigations revealed that between April 9th and April 15th, Ksh. 179,677,736 was paid out from the GL fraudulently to the 551 Equity Bank accounts,” reads Munyiri’s letter.
Preliminary investigations indicate that between 9th to 15th April, 2024, Ksh179,677,736 was fraudulently paid out to the 551 Account holders.
On top of that, another Kshs 62,023,983 was fraudulently paid out to Safaricom Mpesa and Kshs39,047,344 was sent to 11 Commercial Banks.
The Bank claims to have locked down over Ksh 60 million in those 551 accounts and is urgently asking the Banking Fraud Investigations Department to catch the perpetrators.
This comes at the heels of a recent fraud by Equity Uganda Banking staff who led to the loss of Shs62Billion in fake loans disbursements to unqualified account holders.
