Rwandan Police arrests 8 Kenyans, 3 Rwandans & 1 Ugandan for attempting to hack Equity Bank

Rwanda arrests Kenyans attempting to hack Equity Bank

Mumbi Mutuko

November 1, 2019 11:31 AM

Stealing from Equity Bank

Rwanda arrests Kenyans attempting to hack Equity Bank

Eight Kenyans are among 12 people arrested in Rwanda for allegedly attempting to steal money from the Equity Bank.

In a statement, the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) said that the 12 had been arrested after defrauding Equity Bank in Kenya and Uganda.

"RIB arrested an organized group of 08 Kenyans, 03 Rwandans and 01 Ugandan over a cyber fraud attempt on Equity bank Rwanda," the statement read in part.

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"The group came to Rwanda after successfully defrauding Equity Bank both in Kenya and Uganda," the statement added.

Hacking bank's system

According to Rwandan authorities, the 12 suspects were arrested while in the process of hacking into the bank's system to steal money from clients' accounts.

“A case file has been submitted to the National Public Prosecution Authority for further management,” RIB added.

This comes barely a month after detectives in Bomet arrested a 26-year-man who allegedly hacked into Equity Bank accounts and stole more than Sh400, 000.

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Fraud

According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), several phones and identification cards were recovered from the suspect’s house in Bomet County.

In a separate incident last month, police arrested three suspects accused of siphoning over Ksh970,000 from a 67-year-old woman’s bank account.

DCI said the suspects wired the money out of Faith Wanjiku’s account, through the mobile banking application, in about four transactions.