Last night I received a text message and it seemed like the sender had mistakenly forwarded this information to my phone instead of their 'sister's' number. The message was informing the supposed sister that there are job replacements within the Kenya Defense Force and she needed to send details of her son, Ken and any other two young people who have attained a grade of D+ in their Secondary education studies. I called to inform 'Major Benson' that they had forwarded this to the wrong person and they were grateful but told me, I could get the posts if I had someone interested in becoming a KDF officer. However, in order to make it happen, I had to pay him Kes.100,000 in less than 3 days and send the details of my relative to them.
This seemed like a trick and I contacted by partner to inform him the 'luck' we had. One of my brother's in law desperately needs a job and this would be like hitting the jackpot if they had a 'Godfather' to help them directly secure the job.

To my surprise, my partner's colleague at work had received the same message earlier that day and it was proven to be a case of misrepresentation, spamming and attempted fraud.

The text message from Major Benson:-
Hi sis,we're doing KDF replacement plz send Ken details plus 2ppl with D+and & above Send (0788873840) Major Benson.

Many conmen and fraudsters are capitalizing on other peoples' misfortunes or desperation for jobs. First confirm the source of information and do not be quick to use corrupt means to get jobs or favors done for you. You will pay dearly for it.

Have you been online lately? Facebook mostly I mean? There are numerous business ideas being advertised and more so, the people falling victims are the youths looking to venture into simple and easy activities of making quick money. Some of them include Social Biz Connect and the most recent one, is Public Likes. The basic idea is recruiting individuals, getting them to join, upgrade their accounts by depositing $45 or more, and refer their friends in order to increase their earnings. while the starter account is free, it is limited to the extend that your earnings are pretty low. In addition, you cannot make any money off your referrals.

The catch is for an individual to upgrade after joining and for this, they have to pay the company to upgrade. There are some surprising facts arising from this enterprise that have raise an alarm on any one who has been scammed or has seen their friends get scammed. For instance, the site is not secure yet individuals are providing personal bank details, phone contacts and Facebook information. In addition, the administrators are declining to provide responses to the kind of work they pay individuals for while working on their website.

Scam or Real business venture, we only need to wait and see how it goes once the number of individuals upgrading their accounts and working with the company reduces.

Be careful when working with companies like Public Likes and Social Biz Connect that are making money from the affiliates to enhance the possible case of Ponzi Scheme. Any time, the Scheme could die down and tracing these individuals whose contact information is completely hidden from their site will result in huge loses of money.

A few weeks ago I came across an advert on Facebook whereby, Kambongosi Furnitures was selling quality Classy covers for 5 Seater sofaset. Their products could be custom-made and I looked forward to purchasing some and after chating with them, I placed an order and paid the deposit. Everything looked in order and there was no cause for alarm. The rest of the payment was to be paid on delivery, after two weeks. We remained in touch but after two weeks, the communication went cold. Three weeks later, nothing and they stopped picking calls.

Dear Customer,
We received your order, the seat covers shall be ready in two weeks and will be delivered to you within the cbd free of charge.
Thank you for using Kambongosi Furniture
Kambongosi

If you are cannot reach the seller or have a face to face chat with them in their shop, it might be wise to keep off any online based companies without clear indications of their operations. More specifically, avoid any of those claiming to be online based and they only advertise on Facebook using downloaded pictures.

Kenya has been hit by severe drought for months now and this has resulted in scarcity of maize, the stable food. As a result, the price of this necessary commodity has almost doubled in less than 2 months thus raising the cost of living especially in the rural areas. A few weeks ago the government announced the importation of mexican maize that would lower the price of maize flour to kes.90 from kes.150. The move was welcomed but to the shock of many kenyans, the maize flour never reached most people, especially those living in the rural areas. The price has however increased to kes.160 and it is likely to raise.
No more communication has been released by the government on the matter.

Politicians will use anything to get their way and entice voters to favor them during elections. Remaining focused and keen to detect viable leaders is the only way to bring change.

A month ago I took my son who is a year and five months old to see a skin specialist as suggested by his pediatrician. He was suspected of having Molluscum contagiosum and we waited for 30 minutes for the doctor, Evans Kamuri, to see us at his private office at Doctor's plaza in Kenyatta National Hospital.
We finally got our chance to see them and they did not even waste five minutes, examining my son's condition (the warts are located around the diaper area). They quickly said we needed to admit my son at Nairobi West Hospital so that, the doctor could undertake a surgical procedure to remove the warts one-by-one. To undertake this, they said my son had to be under anesthesia. This seemed drastic and a little too much considering at the time the doctor was telling us what to do, they were chatting on the phone with another person waiting for them (I sneaked a look at his messages).
This process did not seat well with me and so, I decided to seek a second opinion and two weeks down the line, I met another dermatologist who prescribed a creamy drug to use for a month before finally deciding on performing any surgical procedure.
What's shocking is that a doctor will care less about the actual condition of a patient before they go ahead and prescribed a very invasive, complicated and expensive procedure for treatment.

If you have medical insurance cover, be careful when seeking treatment from many medical specialists in Kenya as they will milk the insurance money dry before prescribing a procedure that can cure you. If you feel rushed and poorly attended, seek second opinion.

paid a deposit of $200 to secure a ticket to lagos through travlekenya. mr adhama assisted me. soon as payment went through, no word from him again and website disappeared too.

A year ago, my sister saw a poster by John Mune advertising a part-time job opportunity and all they needed was to get in touch and be able to attend the meeting to learn about this golden chance. She took the number and called him, then, she was given directions to a certain location where they meet every Friday at 3pm for weekly meetings. John had insisted that there was no money needed for anything.
At the meeting, my sister learnt that the job was selling GNLD products and it seemed promising. However, they had to pay kes.3500 registration fee and look for additional kes.5000 in order to start selling the products.
On asking John Mune why he had lied that there is no money needed to start, he defended himself saying, he did not say one has to start right away. However, they can earn money by referring people to the group and letting those individuals get recruited as salespersons.
Lucy Nganga was quick to offer her solutions such as contacting all individuals in her phone-book to lend her kes.10/- each so that she raises the much needed kes.8500.

GNLD international is a real business network and not a big scam however, the way one is recruited makes the entire process seem fraudulent. An individual desperately looking for a job right after graduating from a higher learning institution will fall victim of market lies by individuals looking to benefit themselves. Always do your homework and research on any information you find out there before investing your time or money.

A few months ago my 3-month daughter fell ill and I took her to Gertrude's Children Hospital in Muthaiga. We arrived there at 1.30 pm but by 5 pm we had not been attended. Finally a very young doctor saw our daughter and within 10 minutes they suggested that the baby might have meningitis and we could only check into the hospital for three to five days for an in-patient procedure input that includes a lumbar puncture/spinal tap. This sounded drastic and so, my husband and I asked about doing a blood test as an alternative, but she insisted we had to do the lumbar puncture - nothing less and she made us sign up a form rejecting her advice. The charges were kes.8,500 general ward a day and a deposit of kes.70,000. Private room with sharing toilet and bathroom kes.12,000 or 15,000 a day with a kes.100,000 deposit. Private room with your own toilet and bathroom kes.21,000 a day with a deposit of kes. 20,000. The doctor's fee per visit would be 5,000 kes.
For a second opinion, we went to Aga Khan Hospital and the doctor did not mention meningitis but said that the baby had low blood sugar and that she would be fine in 24 hours.

Be careful when seeking treatment in most private hospitals in Kenya especially those in urban regions. The doctors are more interested in the monetary gains than your well being or health.
Seeking a second opinion will not hurt at all.

AAR is one of the most famous and well equipped medical centers in Kenya. It is designed to cater for prenatal cases, outpatient cases and pediatrics as well. Since I realized that my wife was expecta a ant, I took her to AAR outpatient care at Nairobi CBD and we have employed their service to date. A month ago my son developed complications and as usual took him to see the usual pediatrician but this time things turned for the worst.
Lab technicians refused to extract some blood for a specified test by the doctor and for two hours, we waited for results tests that were nit being performed. On complaining to the doctor, they claimed that they did not know why what was happening. Later, we were prescribed some drugs and wile running the medical insurance card, realized that I was being charged for tests and drugs not provided.
I complained once more and requested for clarity on what was happening as it seemed I was being mishandled, ignored, and assumed yet my son needed proper medical attention

We apologize for any issues arising we have new staff and they are learning how to operate.

Always be keen on the form of treatment you are prescribed at various medical centers especially if you are paying via insurance cover. In addition to being prescribed unnecessary tests, drugs, or pro o ocedures, you might be charged for services or products not provided or delivered.

I was stopped by a salesperson who claimed that there was a 'Safaricom' promotion along Moi Avenue new Ebrahim Supermarket.If I took part, I was to win a phone and a laptop. I accepted and scratched a card from which I was informed that I won 3 phones, I was then asked to pay KShs. 5000 to claim the price, I was reluctant but then again the salesperson convinced me that the phones were worth over KShs. 15000 from the official Safaricom shops. On paying, I only got one phone, and was to pay KShs. 10000 to exchange the other two phone for laptop. To my surprise, after making the second payment, I could not get the laptop then, but after two days. However, on the second day, none of their contact details worked and they were no longer where they had set up at the time of purchase. I checked to confirm the value of the supposed promotion phones with Safaricom and they confirmed that those were rejects worth less than Kshs 500 each.

Conmen along the streets are using the promotion trick to get you to fall for their trap. Before taking part, confirm that it is legit and in a promotion, do not pay any money until you are sure about what you are doing. Also, report such activities to the company they are misrepresenting to ensure that no more unsuspecting people fall for their trap.

Paypal is an ultimate payment solution for numerous marketers and online freelancers working online across the globe. But it is not supported in all countries worldwide. However, whether you are using Paypal in a country where it is fully supported or not, the chances of having your account limited or closed for whatever reason is very high, hence, if it has not yet happened, it will happen in the future. This causes issues withdrawing these finds from Paypal.

When I contacted Paypal to inquire about the limiting of my account, I was informed that there are a number of reasons as to why the account could have been limited, but the common reason is suspicion of fraud or security matters. I had already verified the account with Paypal and all details were up to date.
However, I could not withdraw money, shop online, edit personal information, send money, cancel or close the account.
On launching complaints to Paypal, I kept on receiving the automated emails and informed that I can only access the money after 180 days.

Thank you for contacting PayPal. This is an auto-acknowledgement
confirming receipt of your message. Please do not reply to this message.

One of our representatives will be responding to you within 24 hours. If
you have questions that require immediate resolution, please log into
your PayPal account and click ‘Contact Us’ at the bottom of any page.

We look forward to assisting you.

If you need money locked in a limited Paypal account urgently, you cannot use the "Refund" button , simply contact Paypal via email and tell them to “Refund” a specific transaction or all of the transactions. Paypal will return the money back to those who sent it previously, this way, you’ll get your money from Paypal. Have a talk with your clients so that they can resend the money via other means.