US Govt forms special unit to monitor cybercrime emanating from IP addresses in Kenya

US Govt forms special force to deal with these Kenyans

Mumbi Mutuko

September 24, 2019 9:05 AM

FBI monitoring these Kenyans

US Govt forms special force to deal with these Kenyans

Kenyan hackers have become a thorn in the US government's foot that they have now formed a special unit to monitor cybercrime emanating from IP addresses in Kenya.

The FBI has arrested 3 Kenyans after an operation that had targeted perpetrators of an insidious scam that tricks businesses and individuals into wiring money to criminals.

Documents filed by the US Department of Justice indicate that the three Kenyans, Robert Mutua Muli, Amil Hassan Raage, and Jeffrey Sila Ndungi, were arrested during the FBI’s international Operation.

FBI arrests 3 Kenyan scammers over fraud Pulse Live Kenya

The operation involved FBI agents relocating to Nairobi to investigate the online fraud operations, recovering the money and extraditing one of the criminals, while another was lured to the US.

Thieves behind keyboards

Reports by the East African stated that the finance department of Fairfax Country in the US was defrauded of over Ksh103 million when it received what appeared to be an invoice from Dell Computers with which it had a multi-million dollar computer supply deal with.

According to the bureau, these sophisticated cyber-enabled scams often target employees with access to company finances where they are tricked into making wire transfers to bank accounts thought to belong to trusted partners.

Global operation

These accounts are actually controlled by the criminals, the FBI said in a statement.

FBI arrests 3 Kenyan scammers over fraud Pulse Live Kenya

Two weeks ago the US Justice Department said that a global operation targeting online scams led to nearly 300 arrests in 12 countries including Kenya.

“Foreign citizens perpetrate many BEC scams. Those individuals are often members of transnational criminal organizations, which originated in Nigeria but have spread throughout the world,” the statement read.

Mumbi Mutuko