Mr Akinwale Goodluck,
the Corporate Services Executive
of MTN Nigeria, has announced
the decision of the company to
discontinue SIM swaps by proxy
with effect from June 7.
Goodluck said this in a statement
made available on Thursday in
Lagos.
He said that after June 7,
customers who wished to swap
or replace their SIM cards as a
result of their phones being
stolen, destroyed or misplaced
must do so in person.
According to him, the decision
was taken in order to protect
customers’ data and preserve
the overall integrity of the SIM
swap process.
“In recent months, unscrupulous
elements have started to exploit
the proxy SIM swap process and
there have been incidents of
unauthorised people
fraudulently obtaining SIM cards
belonging to others.
“The implication of this decision
is that customers will now have
to appear in person at the
service outlets nearest to them
to request and obtain new SIM
cards.
“Such requests will be treated
promptly after proper ID
validation from the SIM
registration database and upon
presentation of valid
identification such as ID card,
international passport or driver’s
licence,” he said.
Goodluck added that the
customer would also be
required to answer security
questions before a new SIM card
would be issued.
He also called on the company’s
subscribers to urgently register
their SIMs in view of the June 30
deadline or risk suspension of
their mobile lines.
Goodluck urged customers to
register all SIM cards in their
possession including those in
phones, laptops, POS machines
and all other SIM-enabled
devices.
Mr Akin Braithwaite, the
Customer Relations Executive of
MTN, said that the organisation
attached great seriousness to
the issue of customer and data
security.
Braithwaite said that a significant
number of SIM swap-related
fraud were committed by people
who were very close to the
victims and had access to their
personal data.
He said that the new
requirement that customers
should carry out the SIM swaps
in person would check the
activities of fraudsters in this
regard.

Is this news?


Have they been fooolishly swapping sims without the individual present ?