The National Communications Authority (NCA) in collaboration with the Greater-Accra Regional Police Command and Kelni GVG has busted the operations of an International Voice Call Refilling business, an illegal phenomenon akin to SIM-boxing in Accra.
A statement from the NCA said the raid on the site located off Spintex Road in Accra on Thursday, November 26, 2020, led to the confiscation of equipment used in terminating international calls as local calls.
The equipment, according to the statement, included routers, switches, servers, laptops and monitors amongst others.
This followed a complaint from AirtelTigo to NCA, 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 the overseer of the illegal activity has since been arrested and will be arraigned before court to assist in investigations.
The statement said a similar illegal operation (SIM Box) at Anloga in the Kumasi Metropolis was uncovered on November 7, 2020 by the Ashanti Regional Police Command together with the representatives from the NCA and Kelni GVG.
It said 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 in that instance.
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.
