Over 100 NGOs Report Losing Millions in Fake Donor Funding Scam
More than 100 community-based organisations across Kenya say they have lost millions of shillings after falling victim to a suspected fake donor funding scam.
The affected groups, which include church members, small-scale traders, and other local community members, claim they sent money via mobile transactions to a woman who had promised to help them access foreign aid.
The donors were told that this foreign funding would support projects such as buying land, digging boreholes, and providing education to vulnerable members of society.
According to the victims, the woman allegedly convinced them to pay registration and facilitation fees as a requirement to join the scheme and qualify for the promised aid.
One victim explained the financial strain caused by the scam, saying, “I went to the bank and withdrew millions of shillings, and now I have more than Ksh7 million that I have not repaid. All the money has gone to this woman. Some people even sold their properties to give the money.”
Another victim appealed to the government for intervention, stating, “We want the authorities to help us recover the money. We were told that registered members would benefit from money, boreholes, and other social projects.”
In contrast, the woman accused of orchestrating the scam, in an interview with NTV, claimed that the leaders of the community-based organisations were misleading their own members, shifting blame away from herself.
This incident comes amid a broader increase in digital fraud in Kenya. Earlier this year, TransUnion Africa released a report revealing that Kenya leads the continent in digital fraud cases recorded between August and December 2024.
The report found that 82 per cent of Kenyans had been targeted by fraudsters through various channels such as emails, online platforms, phone calls, and text messages during that period.
While most people avoided losing money, 11 per cent admitted they fell victim to fraud, often through scams involving third-party sellers on legitimate online retail websites.
On average, a Kenyan fraud victim loses about Ksh117,000 per incident. The report highlighted that third-party seller scams were the most common, with 34 per cent of victims reporting losses—the highest among all surveyed countries.
Other major sources of financial loss included unemployment fraud (26 per cent), account takeovers (25 per cent), and social engineering scams (22 per cent).
The rising trend of digital fraud underscores the urgent need for increased awareness and stronger protective measures to safeguard citizens from losing their hard-earned money.
For many community-based organisations, the losses are not just financial—they threaten the very social projects meant to uplift vulnerable members of society.
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