SIM Box Equipment Intercepted

Airtel Ghana, with assistance from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police Service, intercepted SIM Box equipment at Kotobabi and Dzowulu in Accra yesterday dawn.

Though the SIM Box fraudsters escaped before the police got to the scene, the team was able to recover four SIM Box machines, which take 140 SIM cards at a time, 2,000 Airtel SIM cards, two industrial UPS machines, antennas, automatic cabin generators and invertors that store power.

SIM Box fraud is a system by which some persons re-route international calls coming to Ghana through some boxes in which they have inserted local SIM cards to terminate the calls using those SIM cards to make the call appear as a local one.

Telecom operators and the State consequently lose revenue on those calls.

The fraudsters, who lived in an unfurnished rented apartment at the said locations, were engaged in the nefarious activity for about 18 months.

Speaking to the media after the operation, Donald Gwira Head of Corporate Communications and External Affairs at Airtel Ghana, stated that 'SIM Boxing is a cost to the telecom companies and a drain on the economy.'

He said even though the fraudsters were not apprehended he was hopeful police investigations would help uncover their whereabouts.

Mr Gwira stated that Airtel was committed to the fight against SIM boxing and had invested in tracking equipment which helped in locating the fraudsters.

He called on the public to be vigilant and report all international calls that come in the form of Airtel numbers to short code 919.

  By Esther Awuah