IN August 2014, Kazeem Biriowo visited sales promotion event organised by the MTN in Ota, Ado/Odo/Ota Local Government Area in Ogun State.

Due to the enticing promotional benefits, he bought an MTN SIM card.

According to International Center for Investigative Reporting, (ICIR), right there, he did his Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) registration, data capturing as well as fingerprints.

ICIR is an independent, nonprofit news agency that seeks to promote transparency and accountability through robust and objective investigative reporting.

According to ICIR, surprisingly, months after, a subscriber, who seems to be a Lagos businessman, residing at the Bourdillion called claiming, he is the real owner of the line.

Prior to this time, clients of the businessman were communicating via text messages to the same line, oblivious of the fact that recipient of those messages is not actually their business partner.

This continued for a long time, until  he resolved to discard the SIM card for a newly registered one.

“It appears the person is into freight business because his clients sent several credit alerts to the SIM,” Biriowo told The ICIR.

“For instance, someone once sent a message that he has just sent N100, 000 to his (businessman) account as part of N500, 000 payment so far made. So, to avoid impersonation, I decided to forgo the line.”

Inspite of his trouble, Biriowo bought another MTN  line.

But, he was shocked to find out the new line he duly registered was also registered with name belonging to another person,  after checking through the True Caller, a popular phone application used to verify people’s identity.

“I was surprised to see Nurse Awal,” he said.

Again, just last week someone called him and said, “Mr Man, this is my phone number. At this time, I was furious. So, I responded– Mr Man! You have called the wrong line”, says Biriowo. “He called again but I insisted the line is mine. So, he terminated the call.”

Why phone users may be at risk

Subscribers to the major telecommunication companies were randomly contacted. And findings showed that most of those who did SIM swap have experienced frustration due to SIM recycling capable of exposing users to danger.

On 7th January, Omoyele Sowore, the Sahara Reporters Publisher shared on his timeline how a man, Anthony Okolia was illegally detained for possessing a phone line he purchased years after it was allegedly abandoned by Hanan Buhari, daughter of Nigeria’s President.

It was discovered that the accused had earlier registered the SIM. Fortunately, he was still in possession of the payment receipt.

In fact, Okolia was allegedly detained for 10 weeks but later released through the effort of his lawyer when Buhari’s daughter refused to present herself to prove she is the rightful owner.

The incident generated some controversy. While some questioned legality of SIM swap, others expressed worry over unlawful detainment of the accused persons. There are several other Nigerians who have had similar SIM swap experience but not made their complaints public.

Last year December, Adeleke Adewolu, NCC Executive Commissioner on Stakeholder Management (ECSM) attributed illegal SIM swaps as being responsible for the highest cyber threats recorded in the telecom sector.

But, based on Biriowo’s observation, anyone who buys a phone line which starts with 08033, for instance in 2018 and above could have bought a swapped line. The original owner could be dead or the SIM card stolen, thus such SIM may have been recycled, he suggested.

While this may be entirely true, The ICIR also discovered that mobile phone lines which have been inactive for three months are mostly considered moribund by telecom firms.

It was also discovered that some of the operators would often send a short message to subscribers after the third month to verify the line’s activeness. The concerned persons are then advised to recharge a certain amount; otherwise, the line will be re-cycled.

An alternative scenario is such that mobile SIM cards are mostly produced in batches such as from 0803, 0806, 0813 etc for the MTN. Globacom phone number prefix started with O805, 0807, 0705…etc while Airtel is 0802, 0902, 0701, 0808, 0708, etc. The trend further applies to the other telecom network operators.

As such, while new SIMS are produced, unused ones are recycled but with likely grave consequences to subscribers.

More sordid experience

A journalist who sought anonymity while sharing his experience told The ICIR how he registered his SIM card in Lagos at a roadside outlet believed to be an accredited Airtel agent. He had used the same active SIM for years until he moved to Abuja.

“Those guys captured me. They did my fingerprint and collected every data…” he said.

At the advent of the 4G network, he decides to upgrade his SIM card at the Airtel office situated within the Central Business District (CBD). But he was shocked when he got a surprising response at the counter – his line belongs to someone else.

“When I wanted to change to 4G last month, I went to the Airtel office at Shoprite in Musa Yardua and I was told to write down my name. I did that, but after he checked, I was told it is assigned to another name.

“It is my active line. In fact, I abandoned another line for it. So that’s not possible,” he argued, yet in a state of confusion. But, the telecom operator official affirmed, “that’s what the record shows.” It was same experience with Biriowo, the earlier complainant.

The senior journalist was later advised to re-register the number in his name before he could migrate to 4G. And he was told he would wait another one month before the migration could happen.