Telecommunications company Safaricom has dismissed up to 33 employees over breach of policy and M-Pesa-related fraud cases.

According to Safaricom's Sustainability report released last week, 33 employees were fired in the last one year. 

The report, which covers the company's fiscal year –April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023 – said 17 of the 33 cases were linked to breach of policy and procedure.

14 of the cases were related to SIM swaps, while two were linked to asset misappropriation.

The report said the 33 cases were an increase from 28 cases investigated in the previous year.

In March this year, Safaricom announced that it had introduced a new SIM-Swap-Check Anti-fraud solution that would restrict withdrawals from suspicious transactions.

This was in an effort to curb mobile money fraud.

The solution Safaricom said would be undertaken jointly with six banks to reduce rising cases of mobile money fraud that have seen customers lose millions.

The SIM-Swap-Check Anti-fraud solution was developed following an analysis of fraud reports to tackle the social engineering of customers to conduct fraudulent SIM swaps.

In June, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations also announced that it had partnered with Safaricom to investigate fraud cases committed through the service provider.

Most Kenyans have been falling victim to SIM-swap fraud where they are tricked into transferring their phone numbers to SIM cards controlled by fraudsters. 

They then call the owner of the number pretending to be employees of the mobile service provider and ask for critical information such as ID number and password that can give them access to your line.

Once the fraudsters have this, they swap your line which gives them access to your M-Pesa and banking details.