Safaricom will now require recipients of funds in their M-Pesa wallets to approve reversals before they are concluded.
Now rolling out, the approval feature seeks to put a stop to fraudulent reversals. An M-Pesa reversal will be immediately followed by an automated call from the telco to the recipient, asking them to approve or decline.
The cash will be held by Safaricom during all this and if the recipient approves the reversal, the cash will be released back to the sender. If they decline the reversal, they will then need to prove their case.
The move comes after increased cases of fraudulent reversals, leading to many businesses declining M-Pesa as a form of payment.
Although Safaricom has in the past followed up reversals with a phone call from agents, that was not always the case for all reversals. The new feature now employs the use of automated calls instead of real customer care attendants.
“Within a few seconds, you will be notified that the transaction reversal has been started, and an update will be shared within two hours. Safaricom will at this point begin engaging the second party, for the reversal.” Safaricom said in a write-up on its website.
Reversals are done by sending the erroneous M-Pesa message to 456. A subscriber can also call Safaricom’s customer care at 100, and provide details accompanying the reversal request.
