The great SIM fraud

Thousands of SIM cards for mobile phones have been purchased against one National Identity card. Scores of them purchased using fake National Identity cards and some bought by men against identity cards of women. The recent registration recheck reveals that 6,500 SIM cards were registered against one NID.
The National Identity registration wing, upset with such revelations, is blaming mobile phone operators for the irregularities involving SIM cards. An Election Commission official said that much of the detail provided by the state-owned Teletalk is valid, but those provided by other mobile operators are causing much headache.
"Most data about pre-paid customers are not available with the operators. Since they are the majority, such lapses defy explanation and they (operators) have none."
Figures by the telecoms regulator say that the six mobile phone operators in Bangladesh have 128 million subscribers until July this year. Security concerns over use of SIMs registered dubiously led to a government order that all SIMs had to be re-registered.
Operators have been asked to recheck registration details and then allow re-registration of SIMs in operation. After the three months given for re-registration, unregistered SIMs will be deactivated, State Minister for Telecommunications Tarana Halim said last month.
After the government’s decision to clamp down unregistered SIMs, the National Identity Card database is being used to verify subscribers’ authenticity. “What the mobile phone operators have done regarding SIM cards is dangerous. The matter of fake registration is worrying. Security of an individual will be at risk. Anyone might get prosecuted for a crime done by other if fake registration is allowed,” said an Election Commission official.
IT expert Mustafa Jabbar has vented his anger on the issue in the social media.
In a Facebook post on Sep 17, he said that it has been already found that a single NID card was used to register for 6,500 SIM cards. “According to credible sources, one of the mobile operators have informed that 90 percent of SIM cards issued by them are fake. Can anyone explain how the BTRC has been allowing such gross irregularity? Tarana Halim (telecoms state minister) should move against all BTRC officials, including Sunil Bose (the chairman),” he wrote in his post.
The EC’s NID wing, however, declined to say anything about the verification process.
“The signing of an agreement for data verification is still being processed. We have already received data of around 5 million subscribers (for verification) from the operators. They have also written to sign the deal (to share the database). Subscribers’ verification is also going on,” said Brig Gen Sultanuzzaman Md Saleh Uddin, director general of the EC's NID wing. He said that the matter was receiving 'much importance’ as it’s a security concern and added that the verification process might be completed by December, according to bdnews24.com.
- biplab