SIM Box fraud on Glo’s network between January and August, 2013 led to the state and two leading telecom operators losing almost US$2million in expected revenue from inbound international calls. Within the period under review, the National Communication Authority (NCA) and its partners in the anti-fraud taskforce detected that over 30,000 Glo SIM cards had been used by SIM Box fraudsters to terminate international traffic in Ghana. ADOMBUSINESS gathered that as a result of that unprecedented level of SIM Boxing on Glo, MTN Ghana lost about US$896,000, Tigo lost US$300,000 and government also lost US$770,000 within the eight-month period. Airtel, Vodafone and Expresso are yet to report on how they were impacted. Meanwhile, Glo has been explaining that its network became attractive to fraudsters because it was new on the market and some of its tariff plans, like the Glo Gista, offered the lowest off-net call rate on the market. Glo also claimed to be committed to fighting SIM boxing because it cost them money. But ADOMBUSINESS gathered from the NCA that the 30,000 SIM cards were not discovered at a go but in bits and almost on daily basis over the eight-month period. Glo was duly informed about the detection as and when they happened, and they were furnished with the phone numbers involved. The telco was then ordered to block those numbers and expose the identities of the fraudsters behind them. According to a top official of the NCA, Glo was required by law to block those numbers within one hour of being furnished with the numbers and to expose who were behind them, but they [Glo] refused to follow the legal requirement and kept some of those fraudulent numbers active on their network for up to 90 days after the detection. “Glo claims to be committed to solving SIM Boxing but their behavior clearly indicates they are not interested in dealing with the problem; otherwise why would they deliberately keep SIM box numbers active on their network months after they had been detected; and why would they refuse to expose the identities of the characters behind those numbers,” the official said.