The TRUTH about SIM Box Fraud





The name SIM Box Fraud is what the Ghana media has created for the activity of VOIP.

VoIP is a technology that allows telephone calls to be made over computer networks like the Internet. VoIP converts analog voice signals into digital data packets and supports real-time, two-way transmission of conversations using Internet Protocol (IP).

VoIP calls can be made on the Internet using a VoIP service provider and standard computer audio systems. Alternatively, some service providers support VoIP through ordinary telephones that use special adapters to connect to a home computer network. Many VoIP implementations are based on the H.323 technology standard.

Is it a crime in Ghana to use Skype? Is it a crime to use Viber on iPhone’s in Ghana? Is it also a crime in Ghana to use Google Talk to make calls? So why are the Anti Fraud Unit of the National Telecommunications Authority (NCA), the telecom service provider, and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service fighting a US-based company, UPM Telecom?

As a Professional Network Engineer with successful years of experience and practice, I think the National Communication Authority and the Ministry of Communication should fight the telecommunication companies in Ghana than fighting UPM and over hundreds of invisible operators in West Africa.

Fighting UPM Telecom alone is like fighting a wind, the Ghanaian public needs to be educated on what SIM Box fraud is as we call it now, Our telecommunication companies here in Ghana rather steals and fraud us subscribers and as if that is not enough, give us a poor service without any questions been ask.

Let’s face a fact here, those who fraud this country are not UPM Telecom group who based in United States of America, we should stop blaming them whiles the main fraudsters are the same people who are the complaints here.

Every SIM Box Fraud arrest the police make, they get a staff or IT person from Airtel or Vodafone as a team member of the arrested group, even a former UT Bank IT guy was arrested for this kind of fraud but simply because UPM is open and are on social media platforms, everybody mentions them and tag them when it comes to SIM Box Fraud which wrong.

The reason why I decided to defend UPM is because I read a lot of negative things about UPM Telecom more often on the internet and in our Ghanaians newspapers but the truth are that, This UPM Telecom don’t even use SIM’S as other telecoms do but rather uses VOIP to operate in USA.

If there is any SIM Box fraud, we should hold Gateway Communications, MTN (Scancom), Tigo (Milicom), Expresso, Vodafone, Glo Ghana and most especially Airtel to be responsible for SIM Box fraud.

SIM Box fraud is a system by which some persons re-route international calls coming to Ghana through some boxes in which they have inserted local SIM cards, and they terminate the calls using those SIM cards, to make the call appear as a local call.

So, for instance, often times an international call appears as a 0266XXXXXX number, meaning the SIM Box fraudster is terminating the call through an Airtel SIM card.

And UPM Telecom doesn’t use any SIM from any telecommunication company in Ghana but ONLY uses VOIP.

Voice over IP (VoIP, abbreviation of voice over Internet Protocol) commonly refers to the communication protocols, technologies, methodologies, and transmission techniques involved in the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. Other terms commonly associated with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, IP communications, and broadband phone.

Internet telephony refers to communications services —voice, fax, SMS, and/or voice-messaging applications— that are transported via the Internet, rather than the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The steps involved in originating a VoIP telephone call are signaling and media channel setup, digitization of the analog voice signal, encoding, packetization, and transmission as Internet Protocol (IP) packets over a packet-switched network. On the receiving side, similar steps (usually in the reverse order) such as reception of the IP packets, decoding of the packets and digital-to-analog conversion reproduce the original voice stream. Even though IP telephony and VoIP are used interchangeably, IP telephony refers to all use of IP protocols for voice communication by digital telephony systems, while VoIP is one technology used by IP telephony to transport phone calls.

Early providers of voice over IP services offered business models (and technical solutions) that mirrored the architecture of the legacy telephone network. Second generation providers, such as Skype have built closed networks for private user bases, offering the benefit of free calls and convenience, while denying their users the ability to call out to other networks. This has severely limited the ability of users to mix-and-match third-party hardware and software. Third generation providers, such as Google Talk have adopted the concept of Federated VoIP – which is a complete departure from the architecture of the legacy networks. These solutions typically allow arbitrary and dynamic interconnection between any two domains on the Internet whenever a user wishes to place a call.

I personally don’t have problem with companies or telecoms using VOIP because it’s not a crime, until Ghana Police Service, Telecoms in Ghana, National Communication Authority and Ministry of Communication start to fight Skype, Google Talk and Viber among other software’s, we have to deal with our own communication companies instead of fighting UPM Telecom and other hidden telecommunications groups using VOIP to communicate to make calls cheaper and easy. This is just part one and secrets of our Ghanaian Telecommunications will be reveal soon.

By: Nana Adu-Boafo Jr. ~ Computer Network Engineer