The security of several tech companies that provide online payments is wanting after a client managed to hack into Africa’s Talking Company system and transferred a total of shs 33,498,643 to his personal and cronies accounts.
Samuel Otieno Obuoyo has been charged in court for an authorized access contrary to section 14 (1) of the computer misuse and cybercrime act number 5 of 2018.
“Intentionally and unlawfully committed an act that caused the computer system to perform tasks that infringed the security measures of Africa’s Talking Limited and stole kshs 33,498, 643 -the property of Africa’s Talking Kenya Limited,” reads the charge sheet.
Obuoyo allegedly committed the offense on 6th April 2018 and 30th November 2018.
In 2017, he visited Africa Talking offices at Galana Plaza on Galana road, Kilimani area in Nairobi and claimed he was offering a service where students would look for tutors and pay for the services in return.
He was operating under the company name Vintage Freelance Limited.
He handed over a letter requesting the company’s services to enable him pay his online clients with ease.
He gave his personal details and he was admitted in the system.
While testifying before Kibera Senior Principal Magistrate Barbara Ojoo , Teresa Osuka Andala the Company’s technical support engineer said as the procedure, Obuoyo was instructed to fill a “know your client” form with the company’s relationship team.
She said he requested for Business to Customer (B2C) which is a pay bill number for payments or disbursements and Customer to Business (C2B) used for collecting money.
He was offered the services after providing two pay bill numbers and there after signed a contract with the company’s officials on September 19,2017.
Osuka told the court that the system gets challenges when one has multiple pay bill numbers and the client may have problems accessing them at once.
She added that what the company does is to help the client have the pay bills closed up into one interface; it allows the client to connect to the pay bills at once.
She said kshs 568,598 was wired into his wallet.
Osuka added that Obuoyo tampered with the system and went on to receive some amount of money every month as per the what was in his wallet.
She said that the investigations showed Obuoyo in October 2018, received Sh 9,185,995 in his paybill wallet and moved out Sh 11,307,500, in November 2018 he received Sh 16,132, 0801 and moved out Sh 18,249,210.
“He moved a total of Sh 31,411,811 up-to November 2018 and moved out Sh 36,409,452 in total,” Osuka told the Court.
She also added that Obuoyo sent shs 10,590,900 to his girl friend Daisy Akinyi,friends Samwel Otieno Sh 14,698,572, Kenneth Kimathi Sh 4,623,500, Evans Kibet Sh 2,100, Kenneth Kariuki Sh 1,862,500 and Ann Obuonyo received Sh 4,612,500.
“This is the money which went to the client’s wallet and he was able to move the same money each time the company would accredit the less amount to enable the pay bill maintain its minimum balance, “she said.
Osuka told the Court that all the above transactions were not legitimate as the client was moving out money that was not in his wallet.
She said after the anomaly was noted, the Company tried but it was unable to stop the transactions.
“We froze the account and notified Safaricom. We reported the case to Police which led to his arrest and arraignment in court,” she added.
“The client (B2C) account had created a URL register that enabled the system to be triggered to make the double payment. The client did not have money but he kept on moving out money that was not his,” she said.
She added that they discovered it was Obuoyo who was behind the theft after he successfully withdrew shs 16 million when the investigations were going on.
She said it was shocking since there was no credit of a similar amount into their bank Account.
Daisy Akinyi testified in court that she was Obuoyo’s girlfriend and they lived together in Nyayo Highrise.
She said Obuoyo occasionally sent her money for use.
Akinyi said Obuoyo sent her as much as shs 70,000 and the rest to deposit in his personal accounts at NIC Bank and Cooperative Bank.
She was a student a Nairobi University School of Medicine.
Akinyi was arrested after giving her testimony in court.
The arrest came after state counsel Nancy Kerubo told the court that Akinyi was a hostile witness.
Kerubo told court Akinyi was not giving testimony as required and requested her testimony to be expunged.
The Magistrate ordered her to be arrested, her testimonies expunged and directed the matter to be heard on 4th October.
Who is Africa’s Talking?
Africa’s is talking is a communication and payment aggregator. It connects Clients to communication companies like Safaricom and Airtel Across Africa.
It was founded in 2007 and its CEO is Sam Gikandi. It provides a link for the service providers. The Company supports payments through MPESA. MPESA allows it to access their platform to enable provide the service.
The Company provides SMS’s, payments, voice, airtime and handles clients who want bulk SMS or airtime.
Its clients include Tala, Branch, CIC Insurance and Total Kenya.
It also deals with Software Development.