And today mid-morning I receive a frantic call from an acquittance who needs money ASAP to send to a fellow who is getting his son into the military. He gives me the sms story [see sms below] and I almost fall off my chair with laughter. He tells me he received an sms which was meant for someone else on Wednesday and called the number. The fellow on the other side apologized and went through the baiting process. This acquittance of mine told him about his son and how he has been trying to join the military for years. He begs the fellow to organize for his son also to join the military. Knowing he has his man, the fellow starts playing hard ball. Apparently there are only 4 positions left, the notice is too short, there are other senior fellows involved bla bla bla. My friend begs the fellow and the fellow finally agrees to see what he can do. They exchange a number of calls over the last three days. The guy updates my friend on the progress, gets details of the son - names, schools attended, grades, home area, name of the chief etc. All this is done pole pole to make it look genuine. Today was the climax. He was called and was told to send around 25k by 3:00pm. That was apparently the deadline for recruitment/placement and "there is a huge competition for the 4 remaining slots". The money was actually for the "senior officers", "Yangu tutaongea kijana akichukuliwa". The fellow had bought the story 120% and wanted a soft loan from me to add on what he had so that he can send the guys before the deadline!

The sms he had received:

Siz nitumie majina na ID ya Ken. Nimeongea na Kianga CGS wa D.O.D. Amekubali kuchukua Ken na vijana wengine 5 kujaza nafasi hapa R.T.S. Eldoret kwa Jeshi.

@Kyt.. they do happen... I know of at least one person who fell for this. There are people who are always looking for a "good" deal even when one is not required.

My profession keeps me in close contact with these schemes and I could tell you hundreds of stories...

Assumption is that he is not already locked up and cooling his heels at Kamiti while storing the phone safely up his a**e

BD13AU128 Confirmed.
You have received Ksh10,000 from JEMUTAI KIPTOO 254725043691 on 16/01/11 at12:24am New M-PESA balance is Ksh20,000.

Received the above from +254725043691 today. Then I get a call from a lady but connection was not good so got disconnected. She is yet to call back.

Almost fell for it because I had coincidentally just received an email which was received at the same time on my phone with the text. So read the email first and it was from a debtor who told me he shall pay me 10k today by MPESA. Of course I figured that the text could be the MPESA and read it just to find that it was for a transfer of 10k. Unfortunately had no money in my account to make it 20k so as I checked the text thinking that maybe my debtor had used a third party to transfer the money which third party did it twice by mistake I realised that the text came from the above number and not from MPESA.

My understanding is that these guys are well educated,the only down fall would perhaps be that random sms being sent to the General himself. Unfortunately,if they have the courage to shove a qwerty phone up their rectum,then they can hook up our prezo with one slot not comprehendin that Jimmy is old enough to be a ret.maj.gen. Jimmy.Its life!

Received this from +254722560143 on 12/01/11 "Hi sis, I've talked to the GENERAL,only five chances in the Airforce. He agreed to take Ken. Fax his papers & copy of ID immediately. Report on Monday 9a.m D.O.D."

Thank God I didn't bother to call.

Wonder why Kenyans are so gullible. How can you win a game you have not played? how do you trust and send money to a person you have not seen, met and agreed on the transaction,worse still how do you identify yourself to a stranger who has called you for i think they need to identify themselves first and their motive to call you.

The "Mr. Koech" sms came from 0702083526 and the "Hi Siz..." one from 0702029567.

Don't think you would go far with that. If you trace the numbers don't be surprised to find a General Kianga being one of the 'owners' of the numbers. From today's Standard it appears that these people use fake IDs with military officers' names to register the phone numbers.

Never send money to anonymous caller.
NEVER EVER.