KATHMANDU, March 19: In another major instance indicating gigantic presence of foreign rackets in call-bypass fraud, three Chinese nationals were arrested in raids at three different places here on Friday.
The three Chinese arrested have been identified as Pan Jiaxi, Bin Jianan and Wu Haoo. They reportedly said during preliminary interrogations that they were employed for a couple of months by a Chinese named Alex who is currently in Sri Lanka.
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) raided call-bypass stations at Chhetrapati, Banasthali and Dhobichour and seized a record amount of equipment used in illegal Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) racketeering. Officials estimate that the Chinese ring could be the largest ever busted.
The CIB team seized 17 gateway machines, including some large ones that could use 24 SIM-cards at a time. “With as many gateway machines, it looks like the racket was able to divert hundreds of calls in a second,” said an official involved in investigations.
Also extracted during the raids were hundreds of Nepal Telecom (NT) and NCELL SIM-cards. “We will collect other facts from the detainees to conclude how much they bled Nepali Telecom Service providers,” officials said.
The arrest of Chinese nationals has taken place at a time when Bangladeshis were believed to be calling the shots in VOIP racketeering in Nepal. Call-bypass is estimated to have bled telecom service providers in Nepal to the tune of hundreds of millions, officials said.
Officials believe the con job is not possible without the help of staffers of the telecom service providers concerned. Last year, police had arrested two NT staffers as the accomplices in a case.
This case, officials said, has revealed that the foreign racketeers have also based themselves in Sri Lanka to bypass telephone calls in Nepal. “As of now, only Bangladesh was seen as a major hub,” said officials.
Of the 32 persons, excluding the Chinese nationals, arrested in anti-VOIP operations so far, nine were Bangladeshis, and of them, five have been deported to their own country.
Officials claimed there are still around half a dozen call by-pass points in operation in the capital. More than 150 points have been destroyed over the past three years.
According to NT spokesperson Surendra Thike, the company has witnessed a monthly revenue increase of up to Rs 300 million (figure calculated in 2010) after the VOIP rackets were busted.
NT has so far blocked around 200,000 SIM cards that had been used for bypassing calls. Ncell blocked 100,000 SIM cards. Ncell has also suspended 13 SIM-card distributors for issuing SIM cards in an unauthorized manner.
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