Telecom fraud is a growing problem: Just ask executives at MTN Ghana, an African carrier.
The company has lost more than $9 million (U.S.) to ripoff artists in just the past six months. While no one at the carrier is going on the record, a "highly placed" source this week told My Joy Online that people fraudulently routing overseas calls through SIM boxes are responsible for the big loss in revenue. That's more than 70 million minutes of calls that appear as local calls on MTN's network. The source said the Ghana government wound up losing an additional $4 million (U.S.) in taxes that went uncollected.
It probably became pretty obvious what was happening after the company discovered that its number of direct international calls had dropped from nearly 50 million in March to just 33 million in October.
The story's source puts some of the blame on rival Airtel, saying that SIM box fraudsters are using that carrier's numbers to terminate inbound international traffic, and that Airtel isn't vigilant enough to keep it from happening.
“It is true that our SIMs still remain the most attractive to fraudsters due to affordability," an Airtel spokesman is quoted as saying, "but I can tell you that over time the NCA’s detection of Airtel numbers in SIM Boxes has reduced from about 500 a day to 100 day – a clear sign that we are winning against the fraudsters gradually," he said.
