According to SSP Subodh Ghimire, chief of Metropolitan Police Range Office (MPRO), IRSF is an emerging global threat that affects all operators, big and small. With this technology, the fraudster, after connecting the SIM, can provide a subscriber with international roaming status, he said.
Once the SIMs are shipped to a foreign roaming destination, they will begin to generate long duration outgoing international calls, inflicting huge financial losses on service providers, he said. [break]
Nabid Ur Rehaman
After receiving a complaint about possible fraud following sudden fluctuation in revenue collection, the Special Bureau of Nepal Police had begun investigations.
Ncell, the telecommunications service provider, had complained to police, suspecting fraud through the use of home networks.
After about two weeks of hard work, police were able to nab the two Pakistani nationals, who were operating IRSF in Nepal using different international SIM cards.
About two weeks ago police arrested them for investigations and they were later proved to be involved in the fraud, using Nepal as their international gateway for the purpose, police informed.
During the arrest they were found involved in calling different countries such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, using roaming via Ncell. The SIMs were terminated.
Though the two were arrested from Kathmandu it was found that they made several calls from the Nepal-China border as well.
Mohammad Asif
The arrested have been identified as Mohammad Asif, 49, with passport-AC1885952 and Nabid Ur Rehaman, 43, with passport-AU 679331.
“It´s a type of telecom piracy which reduces revenues collection by 18 to 20 percent," added SSP Ghimire.
It is very hard to curb such crime using the same technological bases, he said adding that more experts and technology were needed.
The two accused have confessed that they were involved in the illegal trade but said they were not acting alone.
According to police, they were paid about US dollars 1,500 per week.
Police have seized a laptop, 26 UK SIMs, 17 Spain SIMs, a Pak SIM, three Ncell SIMs, 20 mobile sets of different brands and different foreign currencies.
Such fraud reportedly started on the internet and has gradually migrated into mobile and fixed line networks as a new opportunity for fraudsters.
The fraudsters were able to dial as many IRSF numbers as they liked before the home network became aware of the traffic and terminated the SIM cards.
Related story
Smart Telecom starts 4G service today: starts 4G service today
