Your phone is a valuable tool that enables you to keep in touch. It is important that you take steps to protect it as it also contains valuable information that only you as the owner of the phone is privy to such as M-PESA menu, Bonga points information etc. Below are tips on how to protect your phone to avoid your information landing in the wrong hands

MPESA PHONE USER

• Never disclose your phone PIN or MPESA PIN to a third party
• Make sure your PIN is not easy to guess. Avoid using PINS such as year of birth
• Do not provide your call records to a third party
• Ensure you only respond to customer care calls through official designated phone numbers

MOBILE BANKING PHONE USER

• Never disclose your phone PIN or mobile banking application PIN to a third party
• Do not provide your call records to a third party
• Ensure you only respond to customer care calls through official designated phone numbers
• Contact your financial institution as soon as you suspect your details or phone has been compromised

SOCIAL MEDIA INTERACTION PHONE USER

When interacting on social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer and Google+ etc.) – updating profiles, uploading photos, sharing media etc.:

• Ensure that personal information you want to keep private is NOT made available to the public
• Ensure that your social media apps require a log on password. Do NOT set then to automatically logon
• Log off your profile when not actively using it
• Change your social medial password regularly
• Refrain from using the same password for all your social media accounts

TIPS TO AVOID FRAUD

Safaricom official Number

• Safaricom only calls from 0722000000
• Do not follow or key in instructions from unknown callers or people claiming to be from Safaricom
• A genuine MPESA message is sent from MPESA and not a mobile number
• Watch out for people claiming to be from Safaricom calling or texting from a their personal numbers e.g. 07XXX…. 011XXX or 020XXX . Remember official Safaricom number is 0722000000.

Protect your personal information

• Never divulge your PINs whether MPESA, BANK, SIM to anyone. Safaricom staff will never ask you to share your MPESA PIN, SIM, Passcodes or password.
• Never divulge any other information such as your one-time passcodes to anyone. Examples include ATM withdrawal code, authentication code for Safaricom app or other service. Decline any request to share secret information
• Always protect your personal information such as ID number, date of birth, full names, address etc.

Protect yourself from conmen

• Do not read out any message received on your phone to anyone claiming to be from Safaricom.
• Watch out for fake MPESA reversal requests. Do not refund. Request the person calling to forward the message to 456 or to call Safaricom customer care for assistance. Also remember Customer care will never call you and then send you to the nearest agent for a reversal
• Be wary of messages from unknown senders saying you have won or they can give you cash or help. Don’t send money to such people.
• Be wary of  too good to be true offers or texts. They are mostly from fraudsters and are not genuine. Do  not engage the sender/fraudster. Hang up and report the number.
• Beware of messages from callers who threaten you. Ensure you report threats to the police

Report to 333

• When you receive suspicious and fake messages forward the numbers via SMS to 333. This message is free.
• Notify Safaricom of imposters and suspicious branded links/websites/social media handles. Do not share any personal details with anyone on such platforms.
• Reporting helps to ensure that the conning numbers are investigated and blocked.