Sierra Leone: Liberalize Communication Gateway – Nannete Thomas
The Deputy Coordinator of the Attitudinal and Behavioral Change (ABC) Secretariat, Nannette Thomas (in photo), has called on telecommunications authorities to consider liberalizing the country’s communications gateway as a step to clamp down on the spate of rampage SIM fraud against the country.
She made this clarion call at a Committee hearing when officials of the National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM) were summoned by Members of Parliament on the Committee on Information and Communications to account of their moves in streamlining the telecommunications industry.Mrs. Thomas, who was given the exclusive opportunity to speak at the session exclusively for MP members of the Committee as a citizen started with this question to the NATCOM officials: “I received three international calls this morning with local Airtel numbers; one from London and two from the USA. What was responsible for that?
In response to her question, the Deputy Director-General of NATCOM, Senesie Kallon, said: “It is the work of SIM Box fraudsters, who intercept those calls and remove the international identification, for example 001 for calls from the USA, and by so doing, depriving the collection of taxes from international gateways causing an apparent loss to the state in terms of revenue mobilization from the telecommunications sector.
The Deputy Director further elucidated that when SIM Box fraudsters remove the international code using a sophisticated satellite system, they replace it with a local code so that Sierratel as the country’s only international gateway would not be able to bill for such calls, as they would be falsely considered local calls, while the fraudsters collect hard currencies on behalf of those calls.
He further explained that SIM Box fraudsters would come to the country, purchase several of local SIMs densely sold on the streets, and belonging to the respective GSM companies in the country, and would then establish the SIM Box system somewhere within the country, the USA or the UK, and start defrauding the system using complex telecommunications technology.
He acknowledged that by this act, “fraudsters have landed the state into considerable loss in much needed hard currency that should have been collected by Sierratel.”
Senesie Kallon disclosed that they had once arrested SIM Box fraudsters at the Bintumani Hotel and that they included an American who was aided and abetted by two Sierra Leoneans. He said that the American citizen jumped bail and the two Sierra Leoneans were fined a meagre sum of Le15, 000,000 (fifteen million Leones) each. He also disclosed that other SIM Box fraudsters were apprehended in Bo, in which light penalties were sanctioned.
Mrs. Nannette Thomas buttressed that when SIM Box fraudsters invaded the Ghanaian telecommunications industry, the government lost over USD6, 000,000 in just one month. She said knowing the enormity of revenue loss the Ghanaian government experienced, a swift measure was taken through the institution of four cyber crime courts that dealt with culprits, by levying stiffer fines, and through the recruitment of cyber crime task force across the country.
She revealed that Ghana further ensured the liberalization of their gateways by establishing more international telecommunications gateways in their bid to combat cyber crimes.
While Senesie Kallon revealed that NATCOM had facilitated the training of cyber task force team by sending officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to the U.S, Morocco, Senegal etc, they are also looking forward to authorities to review the telecoms act and introduce more laws that will further enhance their operation as an entity.
But the Chairman of the Committee on Information and Communications Hon. Binneh Bangura said that the onus rests on officials of NATCOM to bring forth the initiative to Parliament for a legislative action to be taken in a bid to put cyber crimes to terminus.
By Poindexter Sama
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