Fraudsters posing as church employees con city woman Ksh.2.5M

Fraudsters posing as employees of the Citam church in Buruburu gave her fake cheques for the purchase of equipment which included  massage chairs and a public address system.

“We posted some items on facebook coz we thought that we were not using them and so we wanted to get rid of them coz they were practically new..after a few days we got response from somebody by the name Maurice otieno...he said he works with CITAM,” the victim told Citizen TV. 

Grace (not her real name) received the call in September 2022, believing fate had finally shone on her, unaware of what lay ahead.

“He told us he was a procument officer so he told us to send him a price list which we did via whatsapp and then he selected items which were amounted to 2.5 milion,” she added. 

On Monday, October 3, the man claiming to work for Citam in Buruburu called again, this time saying the church had appointed two ladies to inspect the aforementioned items.

“Maurice calls again, he says the ladies have have arrived and have confirmed the items, they are okay and they would like to pick as quickly as possible because they are using them over the weekend,” she added. 

The two ladies arrived the next day and were captured on CCTV as they were being taken around to inspect the items.

The suspect would call again, this time confirming the alleged church's approval of the items, and with that, a deal was struck and the method of payment agreed upon.

 “He told me can we wire them..I said no..he said what about a bankers cheque..I said a bakers cheque..yeah ..that is fine...” she said. 

At around 4 p.m., a messenger identified as Gabriel arrived with three bankers cheques totaling Ksh.850,000 each.

He was accompanied by a driver with a truck to pick up the items. 

Meanwhile, Grace proceeded to bank the cheques. 

“The next day in the afternoon I went to check because I wanted some money ..so the cheques had not cleared but they told me the cheques were ok they have gone through but I  can only cash them the next day,”  she added. 

She got a rude shock the next day on her attempt to cash out some of her money

“When I checked the ATM, there was no money at all so I went back to the bank..the same guy I was dealing with the previous day..he said no no. those cheques must have gone through..when he checked, he saw they had been cancelled .. that the owner withdrew,” Grace says. 

She reported to the Langata police stationon October 5. Police investigating the case tracked down the truck and arrested the driver but released him after he told them that he had only been hired for the job. 

Lang'ata OCPD Monica Kimani said the matter was still under investigation even as they seek to unmask the indentities of the individuals involved in the scam.

“This time they told me they found the car but the owner of the truck said he was hired and was told to dump the items somewhere on Thika road,” she adds. 

An official of the Citam Buruburu Church told Citizen TV that procurement is done at the church headquarters and not by individual branches.