The minister for ICT and National guidance, Hon. Frank Tumwebaze has been ordered to commence investigations into how, criminals allegedly got Airtel numbers with forged or wrong Identification cards.
According to Tumwebaze, there are reports that some illegal simcards are still active in the market and being used by criminals to hide identity. Most of the cards are from Airtel.
Now, cabinet has ordered an investigation into the alleged simcards and how different telecoms allowed such erroneous registrations.
If found culpable, telecom companies risk financial fines, or losing their license. Recently, an MP’s simcard was hacked by unknown criminals, who defrauded his peers.
The criminals sent out messages asking for money, in the name of the unsuspecting MP. Such cases, the minister says are being handled and UCC has also been ordered to investigate them as soon as possible.
Tumwebaze termed this as web manipulation fraud, which has become very common in Uganda.
