SIM Box Fraud: Glo Ghana Given Ultimatum

*Dr. Mike Adenuga, Globacom chairman

Glo Ghana has been given a two-week ultimatum by the National Communications Authority to address or bring to book the perpetrators of its international SIM box fraud, according to latest reports by Biztechafrica.

Biztechafrica is reporting from Accra that the NCA warned that it would be forced to identify all these fraudsters and block all the numbers should Glo fail to comply with its directive.

It could be recalled that on the 23 of September this year, the National Communications Authority (NCA) said Glo Mobile Network was increasingly being used for international SIM box fraud in Ghana. Statistics from the NCA indicate that there has been a dramatic increase in fraudulent SIMs, from around 2,500 in January, 2013, to nearly 30,000 in August, 2013.

This has put Glo in the lead with the highest number of fraudulent bypass activities, terminating international call traffic on other mobile operators’ platforms, thereby causing huge financial

losses to the government and other operators.

Glo officials have been adamant that it is not Glo, as an institution, which is perpetrating the fraudulent activities, but that the activities are the handiwork of fraudsters who have taken advantage of the low congestion, high speed Internet connectivity, low cost of charges and the freebies offered by the company on its platform to its clients.

Glo officials added that it is losing more as a company, as it is not gaining anything from the international calls but has to pay other operators who end up receiving those calls purportedly emanating from Glo.

They described SIM box fraud as the telecom ‘galamsey’, eating deep into the revenues of telecom operators. SIM box fraud is an illegal process in which some unscrupulous persons in Ghana connive with partners abroad to re-route international calls and terminate them through a local phone number in Ghana to make it appear as if the call is a local one and, therefore, pay lower rates.

A highly placed source at the NCA told the Daily Graphic that the authority was in discussions with Glo Mobile to ensure compliance with laid down policies and directives regarding the menace.

“Our team of investigators uncovered that out of the number of SIM bypass activities exposed, Glo Mobile’s share of the fraud accounted for more than 80 per cent since May, 2012,” it said.
It indicated that the NCA recently directed Glo to disable within one hour “all SIMs detected by the authority or other mobile network operators which are being used for the fraudulent activities”.
It said Glo was also directed to ensure that only registered SIM cards verified by the NCA were activated for use. It said the work of the NCA anti-management task force, in collaboration with the police, was yielding improvement, with the trend showing a gradual reduction in SIM box fraud on the part of the other operators, with the exception of Glo.