Africa's largest cellular operator, MTN, last night swooped on fraudsters who were selling SIM cards illicitly loaded with airtime.
The move, the result of a joint investigation between MTN, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department(JMPD), led to the arrest of two of MTN's contract employees and four members of the public.
MTN says the suspects allegedly sold new prepaid SIM cards fraudulently loaded with airtime to members of the public at “exorbitantly discounted amounts”, defrauding the operator of the value of the airtime. The company is still working out how much money it lost as a result of the scam.
Officers swooped on MTN's Fairland's head office between 11pm last night and 4am this morning. This followed an “extensive investigation” over a two-month period by the cellular company and the SAPS.
JMPD spokesman Wayne Minnaar says more than 560 SIM cards allegedly fraudulently pre-loaded with airtime were confiscated. JMPD officers indicated the value of the airtime is about R200 000.
Vulnerable systems?
Lily Zondo, GM of business risk management, says MTN's fraud and forensic department detected this scam and immediately followed up on leads and clues. “After irrefutable evidence was collected, MTN handed over the matter to the authorities who made the arrests this morning,” she adds.
Zondo says the fraudsters had been in operation for two months, while MTN was tracking down where the cards were being sold.
Unusual transactions alerted the company to the fact that the suspects had worked out how to convert prepaid SIM cards to postpaid and then load then with airtime, says Zondo. The operator then blocked the SIM cards, which rendered them useless.
Zondo says the company is looking into how its systems were compromised. “We can't have this sort of thing happening.”
The company is also looking into whether the cards were registered under the SIM card registration law before being sold.
RICA - or the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act - was brought into effect in the middle of 2009, and was meant to cut down on crimes committed via the use of cellphones.
However, it has already been thwarted, as Eyewitness News recently reported that pre-RICAed SIMs can be bought in outlets for R20. ITWeb also uncovered that a fraudster had taken out a contract in someone else's name, despite the law being in effect.
Zondo says once the company has completed its investigation, for which she did not give a time frame, it will go back to the recruitment agency to see how screening procedures can be strengthened.
“MTN wishes to warn members of the public to be wary of falling prey to offers that are ridiculously discounted. If it is too good to be true, it probably is. Customers should note that the law deems customers who purchase illegally sourced goods to be in commission of a crime,” says MTN SA customer service executive Eddie Moyce.
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