PHOTO: University student nabbed for SIM box fraud

• Posted on February 16, 2016
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

A 30-year-old female university student has been arrested for operating illegal SIM box

capable of blocking revenue up to $13,824 daily from the state.

The suspect, Comfort Gbedebo, was arrested through a joint collaboration between Suba and a taskforce from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

Comfort has on several occasions redeemed her share of the booty through the Western Union money transfer; the last withdrawal was less than two weeks ago.

According to Comfort, she was introduced to the SIM box operation by a Nigerian benefactor who lives in London.

She also told the police she has been operating for nearly a year, using only MTN SIM cards.

The 30-year-old Nigerian female student suspect lives in the room with her three-year-old daughter and her junior sister.

The father of her three-year-old daughter is reported to be working in Cape Coast and only visits them once in many months.

The two illegal SIM box machine operation units were set up in Comfort’s rented single room and supported by one inverter and two huge batteries.

The entire room was littered with MTN SIM and recharge cards, used and unused.

It took only about an hour for the taskforce to locate Comfort, using the special electronic signal system.

On-the-spot analysis showed that Comfort and her gang block international calls to Ghana, leading to the loss of up to $13,824 revenue each day.

Director of the document and visa fraud unit of the police CID, DSP Seth Sewornu urged the public, especially landlords, to be vigilant and report suspicious behaviour of tenants to the police.

By Emefa Abla ADJEI, Accra