How to report a crypto scam in Kenya

If a crypto platform or a "trader" has taken your money, do two things the same day: walk into a police station and get the report entered in the Occurrence Book, and record the wallet addresses publicly.

The OB entry is what turns your loss into a case. Everything downstream — the DCI investigation, anything a bank or exchange will act on, anything the ODPP eventually charges — runs off that number. The public record works immediately, and differently: the address becomes visible to exchange compliance teams, to investigators, and to the next person about to send to it.

The first hours decide most of it. Funds sitting at an exchange can sometimes be held. Funds already broken up across chains cannot.

Key takeaways

• Report at any police station and leave with an OB number. Without a statement and an OB entry there is no case file.
• The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) holds the specialist units: Cyber Crime Investigations, Economic and Commercial Crimes, Banking Frauds, Financial Investigations.
• The DCI toll-free line 0800 722 203 ("Fichua kwa DCI") takes information from anonymous callers. It is an intelligence channel, not a case file — it cannot give you an OB number.
• The platform can also go to the National KE-CIRT/CC at the Communications Authority, which accepts fraud among its categories. That does not replace the police report.
• The Capital Markets Authority does not recover money for investors. Its remit is licensed capital-markets activity, not a crypto loss.
• Kenya's Virtual Asset Service Providers Act commenced in November 2025, but firms already trading have until 4 November 2026 to comply — so the CMA register still has no virtual-asset category, and "unlicensed in Kenya" tells you little yet.

What to do in the first hours

Stop sending money. The most common way a Kenyan crypto loss doubles is the last payment — a "withdrawal fee", a "tax clearance", a "gas top-up" that will supposedly release your profits. That money is gone the moment it leaves.

Then, in this order:

1. Copy every destination wallet address and every transaction hash (TXID). They are in your wallet history or your exchange withdrawal records. This is the most important thing in the report.
2. Screenshot everything before it disappears. Full WhatsApp and Telegram threads, the profile that contacted you, the platform site, the dashboard showing your fake balance. These sites go down within days.
3. Call your bank if any leg went through a bank account and ask for a recall — by phone, then in writing.
4. Contact your mobile-money provider if the money moved through a mobile wallet and lodge a reversal request. That window is short and it closes for good.
5. Notify the exchange you sent from with the receiving address, then file at the station.

Where to report

Any police station — and leave with an OB number

Go to the nearest police station, give a written statement, and get the report entered in the Occurrence Book. The OB number is your reference for everything afterwards: following up with the investigating officer, giving your bank something to act on, supporting any court process.

Take your ID and the documentation printed or on a flash drive. A report that says only "I was scammed online" does not sustain an investigation. The addresses and hashes make it investigable.

The Kenya Police Service hotlines 999, 112 and 911 are for emergencies in progress, not a fraud that happened last week.

Directorate of Criminal Investigations

The DCI is where financial and cyber-enabled crime is actually investigated. Its Investigation Bureau has a Cyber Crime Investigations section inside the Serious Crime Unit, plus separate Economic and Commercial Crimes, Financial Investigations and Banking Frauds units. Complaints can be lodged at Regional, County or Sub-county Criminal Investigations offices as well as at stations. Headquarters is Mazingira Complex, Kiambu Road, Nairobi.

The DCI also runs Fichua kwa DCI — the toll-free line 0800 722 203, 24/7 and at no cost, and a WhatsApp number 0709 570 000. The DCI's own description of the office is exact: vetted multilingual officers who "receive and analyze information from anonymous callers before forwarding the same to the responsible units for action."

That is useful, and it is not your case. An anonymous call takes no statement and names no complainant, so it cannot produce the OB entry a prosecution needs. Use the hotline to put information in front of detectives; use the station to open a file.

Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions

The ODPP prosecutes. It does not take first reports, so you do not open a crypto fraud case by writing to it. It matters later: if your case has an OB number and is going nowhere, the ODPP takes complaints about how an investigation or prosecution is being handled, at ODPP House, Ragati Road, Upper Hill, Nairobi, or at its offices in any of the 47 counties.

National KE-CIRT/CC — Communications Authority of Kenya

The National Computer Incident Response Team Coordination Centre sits at the Communications Authority and runs 24/7. Its incident form lists fraud and social engineering among the categories it accepts, and takes anonymous submissions. Report the platform here as well as to the police, not instead: +254 703 042700, +254 730 172700, [email protected], or the form on ke-cirt.go.ke.

What documentation to gather

• Every wallet address you sent to
• The transaction hash (TXID) of each transfer, with date and time
• Full, uncropped screenshots of every conversation
• The exact URL of the platform, profile, group or advert
• Bank statements, mobile-money statements, exchange withdrawal receipts
• Names, phone numbers, emails and any ID documents the other side sent you
• A written timeline: first contact, every payment, last contact

Check before you pay

The CMA register of licensees at licensees.cma.or.ke is the check for anything presenting itself as an investment firm, fund manager or share dealer. If a "broker" pitching you is not on it, that is the answer.

Now look at that register properly, because this is where most crypto guidance is wrong. It runs to twenty licence categories — stockbrokers, investment banks, fund managers, derivatives brokers, online forex brokers, REIT managers, collective investment schemes, and the rest. Not one is a virtual-asset category.

Kenya does have the law. The Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 commenced on 4 November 2025 and its regulations were gazetted on 22 July 2026, with licensing through the CMA and the Central Bank of Kenya. But section 47 gives anyone already providing virtual asset services one year from commencement to comply — 4 November 2026 — and until that date the register stays as it is.

Which is the practical consequence: no crypto business is on a Kenyan register today. "Not licensed in Kenya" does not separate a real exchange from a fraud right now, because none of them are. Judge a platform instead on whether a small test withdrawal actually arrives, and on who contacted whom first. After November the check starts to mean something.

Why the CMA is not where this gets resolved

This one costs people weeks. The Capital Markets Authority regulates licensed participants and takes complaints at [email protected]. What it does not do is return your money.

One detail is worth knowing. The Capital Market Fraud Investigations Unit was set up jointly with the police, and the DCI's own Investigation Bureau lists a Capital Markets Authority Investigations Unit among its units — the people who would investigate a securities complaint to the CMA are DCI detectives. So if your loss was sold as an investment product by a firm claiming to be licensed, complain to the CMA too; it ends up where your police report ends up. If it was a pure crypto scheme, the CMA has no hook.

Can I get my money back?

Sometimes. Far less often than the internet suggests.

It turns on one question: did the funds reach a service with compliance obligations — an exchange, a payment processor, a bank — before they were dispersed? If yes, and there is a filed report with an OB number, there is a path. Through mixers, bridges or networks that ignore requests, that path narrows to almost nothing.

Bank and mobile-money recalls are the exception worth chasing hard, because those rails have a reversal mechanism and a named account holder at the other end. The first two calls matter more than the next two months.

Nobody can honestly quote you a percentage. Anyone who does, on the phone, having seen not one transaction, is selling you something.

Beware of "fund recovery" offers

A few weeks after the loss, someone offers to recover it. Sometimes they claim to be advocates, sometimes to have contacts inside the DCI or at an exchange. They want a fee up front, a "clearance charge", or remote access to your phone.

It is the same network, or someone who bought the victim list:

• They contacted you
• They want money before doing anything
• They guarantee the outcome
• They claim inside contacts at a government agency

Reporting is free. No government body in Kenya asks for an advance payment to return your funds.

Why record the address publicly

A criminal investigation moves at the speed of one. A public record works the same afternoon.

Post the address, the hash and the website on Chainabuse and that record is visible to exchange compliance teams, to investigators, and to anyone searching that address before they transfer. Chainabuse is free, open to everyone, and groups reports against the same address — so scattered losses become a pattern somebody can see.

Often the person it saves is not you. It is whoever searches that address two weeks from now.

Frequently asked questions

1. Where do I report a crypto scam in Kenya?

At any police station, where your statement is entered in the Occurrence Book and you are issued an OB number. Financial and cyber-enabled fraud is investigated by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, and the complaint can also be lodged at County or Sub-county Criminal Investigations offices.

2. Is calling the DCI toll-free line the same as filing a police report?

No. The Fichua kwa DCI line on 0800 722 203 takes information from anonymous callers and forwards it to the responsible unit; the WhatsApp number 0709 570 000 works the same way. Neither takes a statement or produces an OB number, so neither opens a case in your name.

3. Does the Capital Markets Authority recover money lost to a crypto scam?

No. The CMA regulates licensed capital-markets participants, publishes investor alerts and takes complaints through its anti-fraud unit. It does not return funds. A crypto loss goes to the police and the DCI.

4. Do I need a lawyer to report a crypto scam?

No. Filing at a police station is free and you can do it yourself. What determines whether the report goes anywhere is your documentation — the addresses, the hashes and the screenshots.

5. What documents do I need to bring?

Your ID, the destination wallet addresses, the transaction hash of each transfer with date and time, full screenshots of the conversations, the platform URL, your bank and mobile-money statements, and a timeline.

6. Is crypto regulated in Kenya?

Yes. The Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 commenced on 4 November 2025, with licensing through the CMA and the Central Bank of Kenya. Firms already trading have until 4 November 2026 to comply, so the CMA's register at licensees.cma.or.ke still carries no virtual-asset category — which is why an unlicensed crypto platform is not fraudulent by that fact alone yet.

7. Does reporting on Chainabuse replace the police report?

No — do both. The police report and OB number open the criminal case in Kenya. The Chainabuse report makes the wallet address immediately visible to exchanges and investigators anywhere, which is what can get funds frozen.