Facebook Con Artist Busted by Police

Recently Ghafla! broke the news about con artists impersonating as celebs and other TV personalities and swindling the public of their hard-earned cash. Well, yesterday police arrested a man who opened a social media account and used it to extort money from unsuspecting Kenyans.

David Kitheka Mutua, an IT specialist from Kangundo, had set up a Facebook page with Citizen TV’s news anchor Kirigo Ng’arua details. Complete with photos and information about the news anchor, the page looked legitimate to any ordinary “Facebooker”. Further, the man even had a registered M-Pesa line with Kirigo’s name, just to ward off any suspicion.

The man would post information purporting to be Ng’arua’s just to receive money from “wellwishers”. In one message the man claimed Ng’arua’s parents were unwell and that she urgently needed money to enable her attend to them. He would then approach people who befriended Ng’arua on fake Facebook account and post a message with the mobile phone number. Of course people would then send money to the mobile number.

After days of intense tracking, Kitheka was arrested at an M-Pesa shop withdrawing his loot. Ng’arua said she learnt of the con artist after some of her friends received the messages and that’s when she reported the matter to the police station. Ironically, the guy apologized to Kirigo claiming he is just another jobless man trying to make ends meet. He said that he had recently returned from Uganda and currently had no job. According to him, he only needed 18,000/- to rent a servant quarter in Nairobi.

Be careful with who you interact with on social media.