RICA and tracking down scammers
The Regulation of Interception of Communication Act (RICA), a government law that makes it compulsory for everyone to register all new and existing cellphone numbers, kicked in recently which meant that many non-RICAed SIMs were cut off.
It is not surprising that numerous holes have been found to bypass this new law, with media reports surfacing about foreign nationals and local users connecting to SA’s cellphone networks.
Despite the obvious shortcomings of RICA, Christopher Riley, MD of The Notebook Company, believes that RICA is a step in the right direction to fight crime and fraud. “While RICA will not protect people or companies totally against crime and fraud, it is at least a step in the right direction,” said Riley.
Riley explained that prepaid cellular phone SIM cards made it easy for criminals to dupe the public, without being caught, but that a well implemented RICA system can limit this online fraud.
“Up to now, you could steal a product yourself, and advertise it in the local classifieds, or in on-line second hand websites – without there being any loop back to you,” said Riley. This is changing with RICA.
“In future it will become hard to become truly ‘untraceable’. Many of my peers are worried about human rights and freedom, but I have seen the other side of how much damage has been done with people having untraceable telephone numbers.”
Christopher Riley
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