A collaboration between Subah info solutions and the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Taskforce on cyber and sim box fraud, has saved the country over 77 million dollars.
This was revealed by the Director General of Police CID Commissioner Prosper Agblor when he addressed journalists on Tuesday about five recent arrests made by the taskforce.
According to him, recent monitoring by the taskforce with collaboration from Subah has led to the arrest of various individuals including a Togolese national who are currently assisting police in their investigations.
He narrated incidences where sim box fraudsters have resorted to using unsuspecting hotel facilities for their criminal activity.
He therefore urged hotel owners to report to the police suspicious characters who rent their facilities.
Briefing journalists on their recent arrests, COP Abglor named places such as Gbawe, Botianor, Batsoonaa-Spintex Road, Dome Pillar Two, Aplaku Block Factory and Tubah near kasoa, as some of the places the task force had intervened to arrest sim box fraudsters.
“By our reckoning the state would have lost $77, 379, 000 million if these SIM box fraudsters had not been stopped in their tracks. Therefore, the state needs to mobilize all resources and revenue to achieve national developmental goals and therefore the taskforce together with its partners will not allow economic saboteurs to not only subvert the laudable development objectives of the state but will do everything possible within the confines of the laws of the land to ensure that these criminals are taken care of for good.”
He revealed how such criminals have resorted to sophisticated technology and machines to perpetuate their activity.
He however reiterated the commitment of the police to pursue sim box fraudsters. He commended the taskforce and Subah Info Solutions for acquiring superior and sophisticated equipment which have undoubtedly enabled them to achieve the unprecedented rate of success.
“We will stridently pursue these cyber rubbers to every nook and cranny and apprehend and deal with them in accordance with the laws of the country. The Taskforce has intensified the crackdown on SIM box fraud since the beginning of the year after successful interceptions which resulted in saving millions of dollars in revenue to the country. Our intelligence gathering has revealed that the SIM Box fraudsters are using sophisticated equipment to evade detection. In order to curtail their activities, Subah Info Solutions Ghana Limited deployed more superior detection system which keeps us ahead of the activities of the fraudsters.”
Items retrieved from the suspects included surfline router, extension board, GB Transcend Pendrive, Channel PCI Cards, a double barrel pump action gun, Channel SIM server, laptops, monitors, tablets, phones, scratch cards, SIM cards among others.
From December 2014 to January 2015 till date, about thirty separate arrests have been made with most of the culprits operating in the national capital, Accra.
A SIM box fraud is a setup in which fraudsters install SIM boxes with multiple low-cost prepaid SIM cards. The fraudster then can terminate international calls through local phone numbers in the respective country to make it appear as if the call is a local call.
A lot of revenue that would have hitherto gone to the state is lost through the criminal activity.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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