Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have apprehended a gang based in Nakuru that has been stealing people’s credit cards and using them to buy bitcoins and convert them to Kenyan money.
The group, according to a DCI statement dated Thursday, June 16, consisted of two Kenyatta University students and two female accomplices who operated out of houses in the upscale Milimani region of Nakuru county.
According to the detectives, the perpetrators created phony email accounts and utilized them to hijack credit cards of unsuspecting victims, particularly those in foreign nations.
BITCOIN THUGS ARRESTED
A notorious gang that has been hacking people’s credit cards before using them to purchase bitcoins and convert them to Kenyan currency, have been arrested in Nakuru city. The gang operating from houses in the affluent Milimani neighborhood has been on our pic.twitter.com/BNG40QpxkU— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) June 16, 2022
The funds would then be used to purchase bitcoins, which would subsequently be turned into Kenyan cash.
The money was utilized to live an extravagant lifestyle, including partying and property purchases.
Officers who had been notified to the crime launched investigations and were hot on the trail of the group.
Along with their accomplices, the students were smoked out of the Milimani neighborhood.
“The gang operating from houses in the affluent Milimani neighborhood has been on our radar over the past few days and it was only a matter of time before our detectives smoked them out,” DCI stated.
“Among the documents recovered in the house was a land sale agreement entered on May, 25, for a property valued at Ksh850,000 in Juja, Kiambu county.”
The DCI advised online users to be cautious when clicking links emailed to them, as the vice is spreading across the country.
This comes as the DCI opens its own national forensic laboratory, which will be used to combat modern crimes including cybercrime and technology misuse.
