In November 2022, the police station at Malawi’s capital city Lilongwe registered at least two complaints involving fraudsters who had transferred more than 3 million Malawi kwacha (around $2,920 at the time of writing) from the bank accounts of two victims, after registering new SIM cards against their phone numbers. Investigations into the complaints took detectives to Zomba city, where the police arrested four suspects, including a Telekom Networks Malawi (TNM) employee and a mobile money merchant for TNM Mpamba and Airtel.
“Upon being interviewed, they all admitted to [being] the ones responsible for the theft of [the] above reported cases and many more through SIM swap fraud,” the police report accessed by Rest of World said. “Currently, investigations are still in progress to recover the stolen money and arrest other suspects in the same system.”
Such crimes have become common in Malawi, as fraudsters exploit the weak digital security systems in the southeastern African country. Fraudsters steal 120 million kwacha (nearly $117,000) through mobile money transfers every month, according to the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA).
At 10.1 million, Malawi has more mobile money wallet owners than it does bank accounts, which the country counts at 1.2 million, according to the latest official data. These wallets make it easier for fraudsters to target unsuspecting users through identity theft, fake text messages, and…
