Of late Nepal Police has been dealing with at least three cases of phone threats -- including a spate of such calls to many prominent businessmen-- in which the victims receive calls displaying local numbers that turn out to be international incoming calls diverted by illegal VOIP operators. [break]
The illegal VOIP operators, using sophisticated equipment, block the gateways of service providers and divert international calls toward their own channels. The racketeers enjoy shared income offered by operators in foreign countries where the international calls originate. The practice, however, affects local service providers severely.
Though telecom service providers are pleased over revenue growth thanks to crackdowns by Nepal Police on 10 illegal VOIP operators, the service providers are still continuing with the same lax SIM card distribution practices.
So far, none of the three service providers, to go by the number of SIM cards used by illegal VOIP operators, seems to have properly checked the authenticity of applicants and of the contact persons mentioned for issuance of SIM cards. Nepal Police had recovered over 5,000 SIM cards of Nepal Telecom (NT), Mero Mobile (now N-cell) and UTL during recent crackdowns against the VOIP racket.
The illegal VOIP operators, using sophisticated equipment, block the gateways of service providers and divert international calls toward their own channels. The racketeers enjoy shared income offered by operators in foreign countries where the international calls originate. The practice, however, affects local service providers severely.
According to investigative officials, the VOIP racketeers seem to have procured SIM cards through the use of forged personal documents like photocopies of citizenship certificates.
The illegal VOIP operators have said in their statements to police that they bought photocopies of citizenship certificates from different companies, employment agencies and photocopy centers, where people drop their personal documents in confidence for different purposes.
They also said in the statements that they colluded with distribution agents and even staffers of the telecommunications service providers to buy SIM cards in bulk.
One Keshav Bahadur Khatri was arrested by police in Nawalparasi and sent to the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) on Monday in connection with a phone threat involving an N-cell number which was found to have been registered in his name.
But Khatri turned out to be innocent. "We found that an agent re-used documents to get the SIM card concerned 11 days after Keshav purchased his own card," said an investigative official at MPCD. "The agent had changed the photo in the forged documents."
Similarly, the owner of an UTL number on which a journalist recently received death threats in connection with his reporting on the Jamim Shah murder case turned out to be a farmer in Sarlahi district who has never owned a mobile phone, officials said.
Police recently arrested five NT staffers including section officer Sri Krishna Baniya for allegedly selling a huge amount of RIM cards and SIM cards to an agent who supplied them to illegal VOIP operators. But they were released on bail by Kathmandu District Court a few days ago.
NT, however, preferred not to make public this action taken against its own staffers. The case of two NT staffers who themselves ran a VOIP racket in Banepa has been sub judice at Kavre District Court for two years.
Surendra Thike, the NT spokesman, said that his office has taken the issue seriously and formed a committee to suggest improvements in the SIM card distribution process.
"We have also circulated instructions to our branch offices to be alert while distributing SIM cards," he said. "We accept that, to some extent, it is also due to tough competition among the service providers."
N-cell spokesman Sanju Koirala told myrepublica.com that the SIM card distribution process would be tightened. Similarly, UTL´s media coordinator Rajendra Aryal said the company was taking the problem seriously.
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