An international working group representing more than 120 countries and aimed at stamping out cellular related fraud and crime, has elected Philip Geissler, who heads up Vodacom`s anti-fraud division, as its chairman.
The anti-fraud group, consisting of some 200 networks in 120 countries, has been set up by the GSM MoU forum, the international body of GSM cellular.
Geissler`s election recognises the leading efforts made by the South African network operator in the anti-fraud field. He spearheaded the establishment of the Equipment Identity Register (EIR), which enables network operators to blacklist stolen phones. Geissler`s aim is to eventually have all GSM networks participate in the EIR. To date 34 networks around the world use the EIR. This means that a stolen cellphone in South Africa will be blacklisted, and therefore useless, on all the networks around the world using the EIR.
The success of the EIR in South Africa has grown as the public has become aware of the benefits. "We need victims of stolen phones and criminals to know that a stolen phone is useless if blacklisted on the EIR. We have already witnessed a decrease in the number of stolen phones relative to the phones in use as the awareness of the EIR improves.
"GSM (global system for mobile communications) is an international standard, and therefore a fraud tactic used in one country will immediately be conveyed to all the member networks to prevent it from happening there.
"Being a digital system, GSM is far more fraud-proof than the analogue technology widely in use in the USA and the UK. However, inevitably the fraud tactics used on GSM networks are also far more sophisticated and the anti-fraud group helps us to stay one step ahead from these high-tech criminals," said Geissler.
Share