- Several Kenyans have fallen prey to mobile money scams that have been on the uptick in the past few years
- In this case, a conman tried to swindle former Churchill Show comic Professor Hamo, claiming to have sent him money mistakenly
- He insisted that Hamo should return his money to him, even asking Hamo to take KSh 500 from the total amount for his troubles
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Former Churchill Show comedian Professor Hamo has tickled netizens with his conversation with a conman who was trying to trick him.
How mobile money swindlers work
The infamous swindlers typically send a fake M-Pesa message to an unsuspecting victim and then claim they sent them money accidentally and ask that the victim send it back to them.
While some Kenyans have discovered this scheme and are usually wary, several fall prey to such con artists.
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Hamo Vs Conman
One such swindler tried his luck on Hamo.
In a video shared by the funnyman on TikTok, he received a fake mobile money message that was soon followed up with a call.
"Huyu anaitwa Omari wale wanatumanga pesa zile za uongo," Hamo explained before picking the call.
He decided to play along to hear what Omri had to say.
The conman told him he had sent him KSh 8800 mistakenly and that his attempts to reverse the wrong transaction had been futile.
However, he said he had spoken to Safaricom, who locked the cash and asked whether Telco's customer service agents had reached out to him.
The swindler then asked Hamo whether he had received the money, which Hamo confirmed.
Further, he asked the comic how much he had in his account, and the comedian informed him that he had KSH 27,200.
Thinking he had found an easy mark, Omari asked the comedian to send back KSh 8,300 from the KSh 8800 he had mistakenly sent to him, leaving him the extra 500 supposedly as a token of gratitude.
The comic replied that he would return the non-existent money before hanging up the phone.
"Huyu hapati kitu ngooo...," Hamo captioned the video.
Netizens react to Hamo's phonecall
Several netizens reacted to his video, saying they had had similar encounters with Omari and his associates.
Chrispus Gitonga:
"Omari the same person who tried me."
shin bet:
"ungeedit hio text the umtumie."
iManuel:
"Aah. Omari the conman is overworking."
Claudiakerry1:
"Omari ako in a very serious business."
Çāptäìn:
"The same guy called me I know the voice."
Nyeri queen:
"Nkama wanaendanga training ju voice n the same."
keithmuhu:
"Inatakanga unaedit yako unamtumia 18,800 umuitishe 10k umuambie ata wewe umetuma kumi by mistake."
Davy Karis:
"Alafu anajifanya mzuri, "rudisha elfu nane ubaki na mia tano"
Charz classic:
"Najuaga hii ipo tz tu kumbe ad kenya."
KENYAN GIRL:
"ungemsho zimekulwa na fuliza."
Faith Wawuda Wandogh:
"Ni omari...yule yule Mmoja ninajua..?"
samfoto:
"Kwani omarii Ako Kila mahalii."
Journalist loses KSh 116k to fraudsters
Separately, in May, a Kenyan journalist based in Isiolo lost KSh 116,000 to alleged con artists posing as agents of a local telecommunications company.
Abduba Mamo was on his way home when he met two men driving a private car wearing branded reflector jackets. Daily Nation reported that the duo approached him and convinced him to upgrade his SIM card from 4G to 5G without any charges.
"They asked me to remove one of the SIM cards so that I could update to the new one they offered me," the Kenya News Agency journalist recalled.
An hour later, Mamo discovered the suspected fraudsters had stolen his Equitel sim card and withdrawn his money in four tranches of KSh 21,800, KSh 24,000, KSh 31,000 and KSh 39,500.
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