The National Rainbow Coalition (NARC -Kenya) party leader Martha Karua has faulted Safaricom for “failing to recover former Kenya Medical Association Chairman Andrew Suleh’s money lost to fraudsters via M-Pesa.

In a tweet, Suleh complained that he had been conned via M-Pesa by “insiders at Safaricom who used a fake account on Twitter and a landline whose ownership was later changed.”

“Iron man has been conned by insiders at @Safaricom via M-Pesa using 07246***71 and a fake account @Safaricplcc and a landline 0202***506 name of Brian Mochama which has now been replaced at Safaricom to Merci Melei,” the tweet read.

Karua tagged Safaricom’s Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndengwa as she accused Safaricom of “not caring about the wellbeing of their customers”.

According to Karua’s tweet, Suleh lost Ksh100,000 to the fraudsters.

“Is this the very best you can do for a customer who lost Ksh100,000? No steps to help track the thieves or retrieve the money? We get it, we are on our own as your customers,” the tweet read.

Suleh also says that he had lodged the complaint to Safaricom about a month ago but was yet to receive any assistance.

“Reported to 333 was told the issue will be resolved within 48hours now it’s over one month,” Suleh complained.

Safaricom response

Safaricom responded to Suleh’s complaint on Twitter, with an apology. The communication network also advised Suleh to forward such fraudsters’ numbers to 333.

The tweet also informed Suleh of the official social media handles of Safaricom and their official mobile contact.

“@andrewsuleh : Hi Dr Andrew, sorry about that. Our official contact is 0722000000 and call our social media accounts are verified. Please confirm this before engaging them. Kindly forward such numbers to 333 for investigations,” the tweet read.

Safaricom fraud department

Another user by the handle @stevogooner also lodged a complaint on Suleh’s tweet, claiming to have lost Ksh149,000 to fraudsters through M-Pesa. Safaricom responded by advising him to report the matter to their Fraud Department through the 333 number which ‘is free of charge’.

“Hello @stevogooner, sorry for that, please share the fraudulent details directly with our Fraud Department via the fraud sms number 333 (free of charge), for investigations,” the response read.

Other tweets came out to complain about Safaricom’s automation of services and with more complaints about the fraudsters.

“@Safaricom-Care it’s very unfortunate at how your services no longer favour your consumers, and like many complaints, the decision to automate certain services when a customer calls, you direct them to self-service is not right, you need to ensure the customer care agent picks the call,” @Misssss40998465’s tweet read.

In a tweet, a user by the handle @MukamiWaEmbu accused Safaricom of being a cartel adding that the quality of their service is low. “Very poor services from Safaricom, they are part of cartels,” the tweet read.

Some tweets also claimed that the services of Safaricom deteriorated immediately after the late Bob Collymore, who is the former CEO of Safaricom left the company.