Scammers invade SIM Card registration process

The current process of identifying telephone subscribers has turned ugly in Kumba as some unidentified persons have surfaced demanding FCFA 300 to do the registration.

Last week, hundreds of telephone subscribers decried the fact that adverts, radio announcements and TV spots urging everyone to comply with the exercise stating that identification of numbers is free.

Some said they were shocked to get the new development contrary to claims that subscribers are given extra credit when they register.

According to Calvain Njonkeu, a Kumba city dweller, he entered an MTN retail shop with a photocopy of his national identity card but was told to pay FCFA 300. He said the workers at the centre claimed that the money will be used to refill airtime into their SIM card once the registration is done.

Another Kumba city dweller, Lucy Emade, confirmed to The Post that as traffic intensifies towards the closing of the exercise, she spent over FCFA 1,150 to register three phone numbers for her relatives.

Added to the confusion over payment in some centres, some youths are spotted daily on the streets claiming to be involved in the same SIM card registration exercise. They move around beer parlours, salons, banks and the markets meeting city dwellers to get their SIM cards identified.

A senior official at one of the centres, who refused to be named, said the information had reached them, and observations have been launched to track any impostors.

The official said the mutual discussion with the Government of Cameroon is simply to get everybody identified in the face of growing security threats the world over. He condemned the habit of unruly citizens who may want to use the exercise to make fast cash.

The Post gathered that other telecommunications networks have launched investigations to ascertain the complaints from the public regarding exploitation.

In the meantime, hundreds of Cameroonians are increasingly queuing up at major service centres of the different networks to get themselves and their relatives registered before the June 30 deadline set up by Government.

Despite these challenges, some parents have equally raised concerns over the procedure of getting the numbers of their kids registered, since they have not reached the age of owning a National Identity card.

But information sent out by different stakeholders in the registration process makes it possible for such subscribers to be identified by their parents or through the use of a child's birth certificate