[ 2014-09-02 ]

Ghana Loses USD$50million Through SimBox Fraudsters
In a bid to protect the integrity of the
nation’s communications industry the Criminal
Investigations Department (CID) and the Anti-Fraud
Task Force with help of some telecommunication
group has arrested simbox fraudsters from a
location at Dome Pillar 2 on Tuesday, August 26,
2014. Their actions is said to have led to the
loss of over US$800,000. Two more suspects;
Christopher Jojo Eswusie and John Owusu, are
however on the run.

Head of Public Relations at the CID, Joseph Benefo
Darkwa, says Ghana has reportedly lost over
US$50million through the actions of SIMBOX
fraudsters. Briefing the media on the arrests,
Communications Minister Dr. Edward Omane Boamah
commended personnel of the CID, the Task Force and
the MTN for making the significant arrest. “You
can see from the evidence that there is always
collusion with external interests to defraud our
system.

The exercise by our Security Agencies should
therefore send a message that we are also prepared
for them. We shall chase them and smoke them out
of the ‘holes’ in which they are hiding”.
According to Dr. Omane Boamah, Government is
supporting the work of the Anti-Fraud Task Force
with appropriate policies and regulatory actions
to improve transparency in the telecommunications
industry.

He added “Indeed, recognising the limitations of
existing licensing regime and to address the
challenges faced by operators who have implemented
peer-to-peer interconnect regimes, the ITU has
provided recommendations to resolve
interconnection disputes and also to guide the
licensing of Next Generation Networks”.
‘Simboxing’ The technology exists for
alternative (illegitimate, criminal and
fraudulent) routes to be employed to bring
international telephone traffic into the country
without passing through the registered
International Gateways. Because these are not
official and unregistered hence do not pay
relevant fees and taxes. They also divert revenue
from the telcos to their private accounts and
those of their collaborators both inside and
outside the country.

Dr. Omane Boamah explained that the illegal
by-pass are done by illegal Operators who use a
device called SIMBOX, which can accommodate from 4
to 50,000 SIM cards. The SIMBOX intercepts
international calls through the internet to
convert and present them as local calls to the
receiving public. The availability of high speed
internet as well as unregistered SIM cards
facilitates the business of simboxing.

Meanwhile, the Minister announced, Government has
approved four new policies to introduce four new
licenses to regulate emerging value- added
services. These licenses are: Interconnect
Clearing House License with a potential to control
the incidence of by- pass of incoming
international telephone traffic to the country,
International Wholesale License, Unified Access
Service License and the Mobile Virtual Network
Operations License (MVNO). The introduction of the
new licenses he indicated, will expand the range
of value-added, services, especially the
introduction of premium services by third party
content providers. “They will encourage
competition and grant a level and fair playing
field within the communications eco-system”.

Source - Randy Sekyi Snr.

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