Cape CBD shops selling illegal SIM cards

schumi

schumi

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Cape Town - Despite claims that there would be a crackdown on vendors selling illegal SIM cards, pre-Rica’d SIM cards are available at some Long Street shops.

Two SIM cards were bought for R20 each at different vendors in Long Street without any hassle. The cards were pre-registered with the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act (Rica) and are still widely available.

Communications regulatory adviser, Dominic Cull, said the enforcement of the Rica by-law had always been an issue as pre-Rica’d cards had been readily available for many years.

“The name ‘pre-Rica’ says it all. Rica was never going to work 100% all the time and the informal trade is difficult to police and enforce, which makes it easy for crime to be committed. Pre-Rica’d SIMs impact the SAPS’s ability to investigate crime. SAPS can get an interception direction from a judge to monitor your calls. The department of justice is looking at reviewing Rica. I expect to see the report sometime this year,” said Cull.
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More at : https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/cape-cbd-shops-selling-illegal-sim-cards-13321286
 
Wish they would tell me which shops. I have some circuits I want to test that require a sim card and don't feel like going through the RICA effort
 
Gnome said:
Wish they would tell me which shops. I have some circuits I want to test that require a sim card and don't feel like going through the RICA effort
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I'd imagine any street vendor could assist / point you in the right direction for R10
 
Good to hear. Registering SIM cards should never have been a requirement. Maybe the South African government might finally get the message and do away with this useless aspect of law. As with drug prohibition it only makes them look like idiots.

chickenbeef said:
Has the information available via RICA ever been used to catch criminals since it was introduced?
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Highly unlikely. The concept is fatally flawed.
 
Yep laws like this are beyond stupid, only law abiding members of society are in the Rica database.
 
Walked into a large shopping centre in Jhb, walked up to the first "Eastern owned" cell shop and asked directly "Got any RICA'd sim cards?"
Answer was "MTN, Cell C or Vodacom?"
Didn't even have to pay for it. Was to test a GSM alarm system, I eventually threw it away. But you can get one from just about anywhere.
 
Yep..free.
I suppose they expect you to buy some airtime to put on it.
I didn't though, and they were happy to give it to me without any money. Second time actually....previous time was in Rivonia and that one was also free. They have boxes full.
 
Glock26 said:
Yep..free.
I suppose they expect you to buy some airtime to put on it.
I didn't though, and they were happy to give it to me without any money. Second time actually....previous time was in Rivonia and that one was also free. They have boxes full.
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They get paid every time you recharge it, not sure % value
 
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