SAVED BY ZERO BALANCE MPESA

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Today is not what you would particularly call a good day. It began with me visiting a client whom I had to deliver a project to only to be told that the client was in Nairobi. What made it worse was that I had spent the whole of yesterday frantically trying to reach the said client but she declined to pick my calls.
At one time she told me she was going to call but never did it. So when I woke up early to deliver a job that I have been working for a whole week, I was told that she had travelled, I felt wasted.
So as I am nursing the wounds of rejection and being ignored, there is this other client who is supposed to MPESA me pap. I even talk to the guy and he tells me that he is in the middle of something and that I should just chill. Just let him finish what he is up to and he will sort me out. My eyes therefore become permanently glued to the phone and just waiting for that crucial MPESA message alert.
As I am licking my lips and thinking how I am going to at least and for a while say goodbye to kukauka kwa January a guy calls me. The number is 0788383784. He says his name is Franklin Munyi and purports to be from the Safaricom centre in Westlands.
Given the history of MPESA I have my reservations and he stealthily convinces me that I have won myself Mpesa royalty bonus for the continued and regular use of MPesa. True I am a regular user because I am forever sending money and do not even know how to withdraw. So he tells me he is sending me an authentication code to enable me withdraw the Kshs 70,000 which Safaricom has rewarded me.
But wait a minute, I need to know your details I tell him,
“I am Franklin Munyi blabla” he confidently says as I write down the details.
By now I thinking that I am sorted. Here I am on the eve of a new semester and Makusa the accountant at Daystar University is waiting for me to explain how I am going to pay the Kshs 80,000 as fees for this semester.
He actually asks me to get another phone so that I can verify the transaction of posting money to my account. I get a colleagues phone and do as I am told. This time he calls me on 0787390294
“Go to Mpesa icon on your phone,” he instructs.
“There is a dialogue box on the menu and I would want you to go the sixth which is ATM withdrawal”
I do it as he assures me that Safaricom does not ask for private information.
“Okay, enter the MPESA agent number 555 555”
I do it and the return message reads thus: Failed. M-PESA is unable to authorize a 555555 AGENT ATM authorization code for balances less than Kshs 225. Your M-PESA balance is Kshs 0.00.
“Please read for me the message,” he instructs.
I do it but by the time I am through with reading the SMS to the con, he has already disconnected me and is probably out there on the prowl looking for another gullible Kenyan to steal from.
I was actually withdrawing money from my account and the only thing that saved me is lack of it.

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