Internet Telephony fraud exposed

Seven officers of TIN-IFA Ghana Limited, a local Internet service provider, are helping the Police to investigate a case involving the illegal connection of international telephone gateway facilities by the company, without license from the National Communication Authority (NCA).

Three of the seven were busted at the head office of the company, located in Asylum Down, where they offer the Internet service. The remaining four were arrested at a camouflage communication center under the name of JESAD Business Bureau, about 200 meters from the main office. A visit to the communication center by a team of Police CID officers, NCA officials and newsmen revealed that some gadgets had been installed there. They are 13 packet switches, two satellite modem routers, a network controller and a V-sat hub, all used for receiving and transmitting international calls. Meanwhile a large satellite dish was fixed at a very low level inside the house where the communication center was located, and connected to the equipment in the chamber.

Speaking to newsmen, an official of the NCA, who preferred anonymity for security reasons, said the equipment is the most modern telecommunication facility in the world. He said the NCA had a tip-off on May 23 that the company was operating an international telephone gateway, for which it had no license.

The NCA official said currently, only two companies, Ghana Telecom (GT) and Western Telesystems Limited (Westel), have the license to operate an international gateway for voice calls. He said the packet switching facilities TIN-IFA has installed "can be used to receive international voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone calls from abroad, through the help of overseas partners, who originates the VoIP calls. "The voice calls are then switched and sent as local calls through a circuit switch to telephone subscribers all over the country through the GT network at Accra North." The official said by so doing, TIN-IFA, operating a website on www.tinifa.com.gh, and its unidentified overseas partners, pay GT a local call rate for the international calls transmitted through their network. Section 9, Part II of the NCA Act 524 says: "It is illegal for any person to establish, install, operate or otherwise use a communication system or provide communication service in Ghana unless he has been granted a license for that purpose." He said the NCA with the assistance of the Police, are investigating the fraud, adding that when all the evidence is gathered, a team of NCA and other personnel from the security service would be set up to track down the overseas partners of TIN-IFA.

An official of GT, who was on the team, said the company has given 100 telephone lines to TIN-IFA in two installments of 50 each, within the last seven months for its Internet service, never suspecting the company's illegal activities. He said GT charges 2,400 cedis for an international call per minute, but TIN-IFA pays the local call rate of 200 cedis per minute, after charging overseas customers the dollar equivalent of international call rates. Mr. Alex Amankwah Asare, a tenant of the house where the satellite dish was fixed, told newsmen that the dish was fixed late last year without prior notice to tenants from the landlord, who lives at Awudome Estates. "When they fixed the satellite dish, "we thought they did it for us to have extra and better reception on our television set."