Rwanda National Police

Police in Rusizi district on Saturday, September 5, arrested 15 men over impersonating workers of telecommunication companies with intention to defraud unwitting members of the public.

They were arrested in separate Police operations conducted in the cells of Murambi and Kanoga in Nyakarenzo Sector.

There has been growing complaints from the local residents over rings of fraudsters, according to Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Bonaventure Twizere Karekezi, the Police spokesperson of the Western region.

"This is a big group, some of their members were arrested in the previous operations and currently either serving their sentences or still in the prosecution process," CIP Karekezi said.

“Most of the information is got from the public. They say some people call them claiming to have mistakenly sent them money on their mobile accounts and tell them to urgently wire the money back. Others impersonate telecommunication companies’ workers and demand that their targeted victims change their Mobile Money PIN to the new PIN they tell them,” CP Karekezi explained.

Apparently, the fraudsters formulate Mobile money messages, which they send to the targeted individuals. If you are not vigilant enough, you might indeed think that someone has sent money on your mobile account.

Equally, when these fraudsters get to know your SIM-Card PIN, it becomes easy for them to access you mobile account.

"This new group of 15 people, were arrested based on information provided by their colleagues arrested in the previous operations as well as residents, but there are others that were are still tracking," CIP Karekezi said.

Previously, the conmen would defraud people with a shiny object saying it's gold.

"They would call or send messages to people that they found a gold stone weighing 2,000kgs and ask for help to translate the words on it, which they claimed are written in a foreign language.

They would say the gold bar has 1914 written on it and that it was left behind by colonialists. They would try many tricks to entice you until they take your money but the people got to know this method and the fraudsters have continued to change the tricks."

CIP Karekezi called upon the public to be vigilant and not trust anyone who tells they to “resend”  money and to never share their PIN, and other suspicious favours people would ask.

He added that in case anyone reaches out to them with such unclear offers, they should report it to security organs or their local leaders immediately.

All the arrested suspects admitted to the alleged crimes.

They were taken to the COVID-19 isolation centre in Kamembe, where they will be handed to Rwanda Investigation Bureau once they test Negative for Coronavirus.