The family of the late Rev Peter Kania, the secretary-general of PCEA is pushing hard in nailing fraudsters who wiped the deceased’s account clean making away with Ksh3 million.
Rev Kania succumbed to COVID-19 in July, 2020.
Two weeks after his burial, his wife uncovered the shady happenings that saw her husband’s bank accounts fleeced.
According to the Standard, the fraudsters behind this also applied for a Ksh500,000 loan.
The family says that the money was transferred through mobile money cash transfer and that the matter has been reported to the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI).
The money was moved from his two bank accounts through mobile cash transfer service.
DCI’s preliminary investigation shows that the transfer of the cash started soon after Kania’s death was reported.
Before 24 hours lapsed after he took his final bow, money had started moving out of his account.
Kania’s wife switched on his mobile phone 14 days after his death.
However, she couldn’t access anything despite having the correct PIN for her late husband’s phone.
When she contacted the mobile service provider and adduced evidence of a death certificate and an affidavit, she was shocked to learn that Kania’s number was still in use.
It is this same line that was used to make huge withdrawals from his bank accounts.
Already, two former bank employees have been arrested in connection with the fraud. They were working together with a clerk at the National Registration Bureau.
The two ex-bankers are said to have been operating a racket of identity theft which they use to fleece the dead.
Kania’s case was not an isolated one; this has been happening.
Main targets are rich men and women who are placed in the obituaries. From here, the racket picks their information and gets down to work with the help of IT experts.
They also involve personnel from the Registrar of Persons where they fish more details before moving to the mobile service provider to fetch exclusive information about the deceased.
With all the information, it gets easy for them to withdraw money from bank accounts.
