NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Mobile money has made lives easier for most people in Africa, but this has not come cheap for the users with con tricksters forever devising means and ways of stealing the money. In Kenya, for example, con men are applying tricks that are more advanced than service providers and users.

Having a mobile phone in Kenya seems to have become the easiest way citizens are being exposed to crime as fraudsters devise new ways to steal from subscribers.

The criminals are coming up with the schemes nearly every day, staying ahead of subscribers, the sector’s regulator and mobile phone service providers.

Kenya’s mobile phone subscribers stand at about 38 million, out of a population of close to 41 million people, with the number rising every quarter, according to the latest data from the Communication Authority of Kenya.