SIMBOX and International Voice Call Refilling Fraudsters Busted in Collaborative Efforts

The Greater Accra Regional Police Command together with the National Communications Authority (NCA) and Kelni GVG on Thursday, 26th November, 2020 intercepted the operations of an International Voice Call Refilling business, an illegal phenomenon similar to SIM-boxing.

The raid on the site located off Spintex Road in Accra, led to the confiscation of equipment used in terminating international calls as local calls. The equipment included routers, switches, servers, laptops and monitors amongst others.

Earlier, the NCA had received a complaint from AirtelTigo that some of their numbers were being used to carry out international call refilling fraud and further investigations by the joint NCA/Kelni GVG/Ghana Police team confirmed the illegal operations at the said location. This led to a search following which the set-up comprising the equipment mentioned earlier was discovered and confiscated. An individual suspected to be overseeing the illegal activity has since been arrested and will be arraigned before court to assist in investigations.

A similar illegal operation (SIM Box) at Anloga in the Kumasi Metropolis was uncovered on 7th November, 2020 by the Ashanti Regional Police Command together with the representatives from the NCA and Kelni GVG.

One suspect was arrested and SIM Box equipment, mobile phones, laptops, internet routers, over 200 used and unused SIM cards and a money transfer receipt suspected to be proceeds from the illegal operations were seized. The suspect has since been granted bail.

In January and February this year, arrests were made at the Premier Towers in Accra and Tema Community 11 respectively, following routine SIM Box monitoring by the Anti-fraud Team. Similarly, SIM Box equipment and hundreds of SIM cards were confiscated. The suspects have been arraigned before the Accra High Court.