A SIM card fraud ring has been dismantled in Mozambique. 28 people were detained

Vodacom’s M-Pesa digital wallet dismantled the Mozambican telecom operator’s “network of account registration agents and fraudulent SIM card sales” in “high-risk areas”, leading to 28 arrests.

“To date, 28 people have been detained for questioning and the investigation is ongoing and awaiting resolution,” the operator said in a statement this Friday, saying its fraud investigation team had dismantled this “account registration network of fraudulent agents and sales”. maps in the province of Nampula.

“The operation was the result of Vodafone M-Pesa’s anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing monitoring and investigations,” he adds.

The operator, which owns the country’s largest digital wallet whose transactions are carried out only using mobile phones and their SIM cards, said that in February it discovered “the existence of a significant number of accounts opened by forging identification documents in the Zones.” high risk (Northern region)”, after which an “in-depth investigation was carried out, which allowed us to identify registered agents involved in fraudulent activity.”

“The fraud was carried out by using a single identification document by multiple agents, who then created multiple records based on the same document,” it further explains.

He also mentioned that “Namicopo and Carrupeya areas in Nampula city have been identified as the main hotbed of this illegal practice.”

After identifying those involved, the case was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Service (Sernik) of Nampula Province, “where an extensive field operation was launched, targeting those with the most records and the highest commissions, in order to uncover the source of the fraud.” “

Mozambican authorities classified the electronic money institution (IME) sector, which operates through mobile phone operators, as a “high” threat level for terrorist financing, according to a government report released in March by Lusa.

“The level of terrorist financing threat from the electronic money sector in the country is high,” the National Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment Report said.

The document also acknowledges the “excessive movement of funds into areas of active terrorist threat using electronic money institutions” operating in Mozambique, noting that it is “concentrated in rural areas and has limited access to the national banking network.”

“For this reason, preference is given to the use of electronic money institutions, given the ease of use of this service and the rapid movement of funds it provides. These combined factors accelerate and make it attractive for terrorist supporters to abuse this sector. population groups living and carrying out social and commercial activities, including in regions with an active terrorist threat, allows terrorists and their supporters to abuse the services of electronic money institutions to move funds,” it says.

In February, Lusa reported that the number of EMI agents in Mozambique guaranteeing transfers, purchases, withdrawals and deposits through mobile operators increased by 10.5% in three months to 224,704 in December, covering all 154 districts of the country.

“At the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, in the province of Cabo Delgado, especially in rural areas, transactions were mainly carried out in cash and using mobile wallets (electronic money), given the lack of banks operating in these areas, given what terrorists had in this system, given the weak controls, a preferential mechanism for the movement of funds sent by relatives, friends, supporters and others, and then collected from agents by people connected by friendly ties and who subsequently carried out the delivery of cash for their terrorist. activities,” the report notes.