Afriwave Telecom, which recently announced its plans to arrest SIM-Box fraud in Ghana has made significant progress in just five months of test operations by cracking down on SIM Boxing via the prompt deactivation of Detected Numbers.

Since setting up its robust systems and undertaking test operations from October ending 2015, Afriwave in collaboration with SIGOS, the worldwide leader in real time SIM Box detection, has chosen to go for a centralized approach, allowing them to get a necessary nationwide view on fraudulent activities on the Ghanaian networks.

"The campaign, since the start, has led to the detection of over 300,000 SIM Boxes so far," a statement from Afriwave said.

The statement, signed by its Corporate Affairs Director, Donald Gwira said Afriwave and SIGOS achieved this by setting up a campaign including a drastic increase of detection test calls and a deactivation platform linking up all operators.

It said, under the new campaign, detected SIM Box numbers are swiftly relayed to the mobile operators and deactivated before they become profitable.

SIM Box fraud is a set up where fraudsters in Ghana connive with partners abroad to route international calls through the internet using voice over internet (VOIP) and terminate those calls through a local phone number in Ghana to make it appear as if the call is a local call.

The caller is often not aware of the activities of these cyber fraudsters whose activities result in the loss of revenue to the state and local telecom operators.

SIM-Boxes also have a negative impact on the call quality received by end customers like background noise and that goes to harm the reputation of telecom operators.

Commenting on progress so far, Donald Gwira said: “We are committed to delivering on our mandate to fight telecommunications fraud across all mobile network operators. To that end, SIM-Box numbers are detected by the minute and relayed to the mobile respective network operators for immediate deactivation."

He noted that the aggressive approach by Afriwave and SIGOS is making it cumbersome for the fraudsters to keep up as they have to constantly go back to the market to buy more SIM cards to re-stock their SIMBOXES.

“Working with the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the law enforcement agencies in Ghana, we will be stepping up our strategy of Test Call Generation, which is what we are currently doing to include Geo-location solution, which will expose the location of the equipment and their operators for confiscation and prosecution so that SIM-Boxing is reduced to levels where it is no longer profitable for the fraudsters to stay in business” Gwira added.