A man suspected to be the brains behind a spate of mobile banking fraud has been arrested in Gacurabwenge Sector of Kamonyi District.

The suspect, a 32-year-old commercial motorcyclist in the City of Kigali, was taken into custody on Thursday in Kamonyi Village of Gihinga Cell, Police spokesperson for the Southern region Emmanuel Kayigi said.

By the time of the arrest, Police had received at least three separate reports against the suspect, in which he is alleged to have separately duped three mobile banking agents of Rwf898,000, Kayigi said.

"Preliminary investigations indicate that the suspect heads a ring, which connive and use different tricks to defraud unsuspecting mobile money banking users and dealers,” he said.

It is said that the suspect and his accomplices, who are still at large, approach their targets, especially mobile money banking agents, using different tricks to get their PIN code and pretend to be either buying Me-To-You (airtime) or seeking mobile banking services.

After securing the PIN codes, they would pretend to be filling in the contacts but instead they transfer money to their phones.

"During investigations, we found out that the ring leader had stolen a National ID belonging to one Jean Damascene Gasabubu, which they used to acquire a SIM-card, where all the money was being sent,” Kiyigi said said.

According to investigations, the suspect and his accomplices duped one Joel Munyendamutsa of Rwf679,000 on August 18; Emmanuel Nizeyimana Rwf146,000 on September 7; from one Ferdinand Ndikubwayo (Rwf73,000) on September 14 – the day of his arrest.

The suspect is currently detained at Runda Police Station pending further investigations.

"Investigations are still ongoing to locate all the members of this ring and bring them to justice. As a norm, we urge anyone with information on this group or any other person involved in these criminal tendencies to come forward to facilitate investigations and ensure that they face justice,” Kayigi said.

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