A Chinese citizen was detained on suspicion of involvement in a sophisticated phone call diversion scheme, which directly affected operators UNITEL e AFRICELL. According to authorities, the suspect managed to earn up to $400 a month with the fraud, which consisted of illegally redirecting international calls.
Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) dismantled a criminal network, and detained a citizen of Chinese nationality, identified as Wanga, 33 years old, electronics engineer, who managed an international telephone call fraud scheme, which invaded the operating systems of mobile operators such as UNITEL and AFRICELL.
According to the SIC-General Spokesperson, Chief Superintendent, Manuel Halaiwa, the operatives became aware of it through a complaint made by UNITEL itself.
“Criminal intelligence actions were triggered, which culminated in the arrest of the aforementioned foreign citizen, having been caught, inside the residence where the scheme operated, with more than two million chips, which were inserted into a Sim Box, which diverted calls international, and obtained profits that varied between 300 and 400 thousand dollars per month”, he informed.
Manuel Halaiwa said that the detained citizen was the manager of the gang, and everything is being done to completely dismantle the group. In the same operation, seven Angolan citizens were detained, including two female employees.
Computers, Sim Boxes and other electronic devices that served as a means of work were seized.
Rui Horta, senior Fraud and Security manager at the telecommunications company UNITEL, explained how the fraudulent system was designed, and how it harmed mobile operating companies.
“Over the last two years, UNITEL has noticed the appearance of a fraud that is normally called Sim Box, it is not a phenomenon exclusive to UNITEL, it also affects other national mobile operators. Since then, UNITEL has been combating this phenomenon on a daily basis”He explained.
On average, he said, he has been suspending around a thousand cards per day, “cards that are involved in this type of fraud”.
The head of UNITEL also clarified that the scheme worked on international calls, that is, criminals, using the Sim Box, introduced chips to divert calls coming from outside the country, and this meant that legal operators did not charge for these services.
“Whenever someone abroad makes a call to Angola, destined for an Angolan customer, regardless of the mobile operator that customer has connected to, that call has to be transported through the international circuits that exist for this purpose, therefore, the operators have interconnection that allows each and every operator in the world to communicate freely with each other. This communication capacity is ensured through so-called carriers”.
“Carriers are entities that transport this type of international traffic, destined for a specific country, which is charged at the destination”.
The operator receiving the call charges a fee per minute, however, the fraud consisted of diverting this traffic from legitimate international circuits to the internet.
“These calls, when diverted, are able to enter Angolan territory via the internet, thus bypassing what are the international circuits dedicated to this purpose and, naturally, also bypassing the payment that they would have to make to the operators for each minute of conversation that is carried out.”
He explained that the interconnection market is not regulated, therefore, any entity can determine the price, and this attracts international operators who accept the offer, and pay cheaper, “this is the scheme that the Chinese citizen carried out in Angola”.
