Safaricom To Consider Finger Biometrics To Cut-off Fraud

Safaricom examine the use of finger print identification for key services such as replacement of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards to cut-off fraud in the telecommunication sector.

Chief executive officer Bob Collymore said incidents such as the recent sim swap fraud that led to the arrest of 22 suspects, including some Safaricom staff, calls for “more technical solution”

“We vet people quite carefully. it is only that people come in clean then became corrupt.” he said in his first section with the press.

“We are looking at introducing biometrics for SIM swaps and the line is active, we will send a message with a request and you will have to confirm the request for the swap,” he added .

Director of corporate Affairs at Safaricom, Stephen Chege, said the firm wants to elongate the identification process required for services such as SIM swaps to lock out fraudsters.

“If we bring in biometrics and some tries social engineering at some point they will be required to put in details like a thumb print to prove if that is a genuine customer authorizing SIM swap,”said Mr.chege