By Wanja Waweru
On February 6, 2023, former Tusker Project Fame finalist Alvan Love pressed telecommunications behemoth Safaricom to explain why he discovered his mobile money wallet, M-Pesa, “transacting” without his knowledge.
“Safaricom! No longer safe! I just found my phone trying to (send) money by it’s self. It started with a notification (your sim played a tone accept or decline. I accepted, then the next thing all the M-Pesa menu came up and started doing things by its self). Safaricom PLC, What the hell is going on? 😱 I have since emptied it to zero,” wrote Alvan Love.
A number of people who follow him said they had also experienced it on different occasions.
“Yeah. It happened to me, too, yesterday night. I was just on Facebook then the M-Pesa menu came by itself. It even told me thank you for using M-Pesa. I freaked out,” added Winnie Amollo.
“Happened to my someone this very morning…I laughed it off as an iPhone user’s problem. Haiyae!” said Shiku Irungu.
“I slept around 10:30. Upon waking up at 5:15 am, I found my phone on the M-Pesa menu 🤔. Of all places, why would my phone station itself in the M-Pesa menu. That just happened today. Strange, right?” said Neima Ahmed.
“I woke up in the morning to find my phone on Mpesa menu. This has happened twice and I am sure I didn’t leave my phone on that window,” Mnyazi Mtsonga.
The M-Pesa menu activating was caused by a new development in the M-Pesa withdrawal menu, Safaricom answered in Alvan Love’s comment area as demand built on the firm to provide an explanation.
“Hello Alvan, we extend to you our most sincere apologies regarding the experience with our M-Pesa service. The issue was as a result of M-Pesa system menu push for the newly developed M-Pesa withdrawal menu. Your M-Pesa account was not accessed as there was no PIN request. Thank you. AO,” responded Safaricom’s social media handlers.
