How fraudsters cheated govt, MTN in phone calls scam
What you need to know:
- The convicts are Ibrahim Kagulire, 20, Denis Musaazi, 21 and Maxie Bingi, 34.
The Specialised Utilities Wildlife and Standards Court yesterday heard from the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) lawyer that MTN Uganda and government lost more than Shs479.8m in taxes and revenue respectively, when fraudsters intercepted international calls.
Mr Kenneth Sseguya revealed this in a case where three men were convicted and sentenced to four years in jail in connection to electronic fraud and operating a telecommunications apparatus without licence from UCC.
The convicts are Ibrahim Kagulire, 20, Denis Musaazi, 21 and Maxie Bingi, 34.
They were arrested in possession of 584 MTN Uganda SIM cards, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA) machine, three Airtel SIM cards, phones and a laptop, among other unlicensed gadgets.
Mr Sseguya told court that between the months of June, 2019 and January, 2020, UCC got suspicious that there were many calls that were coming in from a specific place in Masanafu, Rubaga Division, a Kampala suburb.
He explained that these calls were suspect because unlike other phone calls that keep changing telecommunication masts, as the phone holder is moving, these calls were static and numerous.
Investigation
Mr Sseguya said this provoked UCC and MTN Uganda to carry out an investigation to find how this was possible. Upon tracing the area where these calls were originating, they realised that some fraudsters had installed a gadget known as GSMA machine.
He told court that the GSMA machine was used by the convicts as a gateway machine to intercept international calls, which they would disguise as local calls which pay less taxes.
He said these fraudsters deal with international telecom companies that pay them to engage in such dubious activity.
He added the convicts grabbed phones from people and later used the SIM cards in the dubious activity.
Tasked to explain how he used the gateway machine, Kagulire sought to be pardoned, telling court that he is a Senior Four vacationist who wanted to save for school fees, so he was recruited by one Jonathan Sewava Kizito, who has since fled to DR-Congo, and that he had taught them how to operate the machine by inserting in multiple SIM cards.
In a session presided over by the magistrate, Stella Maris Amabilis, she sentenced Kagulire, Musaazi and Bingi on their own plea of guilty.
While sentencing the three, Ms Amabilis held that she agrees with Mr Sseguya’s assertion that offences of electronic fraud are becoming rampant hence court needs to protect the communication sector to put a stop on loss of revenue.
