Cell scam entangles Reliance too

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Cell scam entangles Reliance too

ABHAY VAIDYA AND NEIL PATEL

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2004 03:20:15 AM ]

PUNE: BSNL's CellOne is not the only one being bled by scamsters. India's numero uno CDMA player, Reliance Infocomm, too, has been hit by the bogus connection-based conferencecalling scam, and has already lost crores of rupees on international calls, mainly between Gulf countries and India.

Investigations by a Times team revealed that names and addresses on at least four Reliance Infocomm connections were either false or forged.

More shockingly, at least two untraceable Reliance Infocomm subscribers have left their footprints on the bills of one untraceable BSNL defaulter, whose unpaid dues of STD/ISD calls crossed a whopping Rs 10 lakh in October 2003.

While names and addresses on at least two Reliance bills were found to be fictitious, in another case, Deepali Chavan, a Pune resident, got a bill for Rs 4,294.71 without having applied for a Reliance mobile.

"Within two days of getting this bill in November 2003, I filed a complaint with the Market Yard police chowky. I was told by the police that they have received other such complaints relating to Reliance Infocomm," Chavan told TNN.

"I lost my driving licence a year back and I think that was used by someone to get a connection in my name and address. I asked a Reliance Web World outlet to show me the documents that were used to secure the connection but they refused," she said.

The fact that subscription-based fraud in which false or forged documents were used to obtain Reliance connections raises questions over the firm's address verification system.

Reacting to TNN's expose on the scam ('International Call scam bleeds BSNL', TOI, February 18, 2004 ), Reliance Infocomm's business head, Maharashtra and Goa , Dinesh Gulati said on Wednesday: "We have a very stringent verification system. Our address-verification agency visits customers' home and checks if he/she has actually applied for a handset. The handset and service is activated only after thorough credit verification."

On Thursday, a Times team tried to get in touch with Eliyas A. Shaikh, whose address on a pending Reliance bill (Rs 41,626.41, dated 24.1.04) was given as "416 Mangalwar Peth, Kale Wada, Pune, Maharashtra- 411016."

A visit to this address, however, drew a blank with neighbours stating that no one by that name lived there. According to investigations, a similar identity, but under a different address, was used in a BSNL connection where unpaid bills amounted to over Rs 10 lakh in October 2003.

In the case of another Reliance Infocomm connection, where unpaid dues amounted to Rs 57,349.83 as of January 20, 2004 , the name and address did not match with the Nana Peth location that was mentioned on the bill.

The fourth case was that of Sudhakar Dhamdhere, who received a Reliance bill for Rs 5,026.60 dated November 20, 2003 .

Dhamdhere, in a letter dated November 22, 2003 , to Reliance Infocomm, said that the bill under the name "Sudhakar S Dhamdheere" was a case of "misuse of address and name" and should be cancelled forthwith.

Dhamdhere not only urged Reliance to terminate the mobile connection but also filed a police case after checking the identity of the person involved.

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Two other news on this issue.

Reliance reacts to cell scam

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2004 04:04:01 AM ]

PUNE: Dinesh Gulati, business head (Maharashtra and Goa), Reliance Infocomm, was, on Thursday evening, provided all the relevant details, including the names, telephone numbers and bills that The Times of India sought to highlight in its report.

Gulati said that the cases brought to the company’s notice by TNN were “complicated” and a detailed response would be given on Friday.

However, he said that in two cases of pending bills amounting to Rs 41,626.61 and Rs 57,349.83, the parties were once debarred in October 2003 and unbarred when they gave cheques. They were again debarred in January 2004 when the cheques bounced.

Speaking about cases where those who never booked Reliance connections received bills, S. Sawant, a corporate communications executive, said that the company has no direct control when they have sub-subagents, who are not authorised agents, handling the end-customer.

All these cases could have come into the system in the May-June period when the company did not have its fraud management systems in place, added Gulati.

However, according to Sawant, Reliance Infocomm had problems till December 2003 as 1 lakh new customers were being added daily under the ‘Monsoon Hungama’ scheme, the details of which could not be entered into the system immediately, creating a huge backlog, which was cleared only by November-end.

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Other cellular cos watch out for fraudsters

ABHAY VAIDYA AND RAHUL CHANDAWARKAR

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2004 02:11:15 AM ]

PUNE: The subscription-based scam that has robbed public sector telecom giant BSNL of crores of rupees, seems to have penetrated at least one more telecom network.

Fradulently using the identity of a Pune resident, a mobile connection of that telecom network was obtained for making illegal STD, ISD calls. The connection was snapped late last year after the bill touched Rs 4.5 lakh and “private detectives were sent to investigate the scam,” reliable sources told TNN.

Specifically in the case of the BSNL fraud, which was brought to light by TOI (‘International call scam bleeds BSNL’, February 18), an unpaid bill of over Rs 15 lakh had the telephone number of another network appearing repeatedly. That bill for, just one month, runs into 100 pages and more!

TNN, therefore, spoke to the heads of various telecom networks to find out what fraud management bills they had in place Krishna Angara, executive vice-president (business operations), BPL Mobile Ltd: In our system, no customer gets his or her line activated unless credit verification is done. If you submit a copy of your ration card, people from our independent credit-verification agency will visit your place of residence.

On an average, we reject 10-15 per cent of applicants for failing to meet our credit-verification standards. We ask them to opt for a pre-paid card.

In the case of STD/ISD connections,we demand a deposit. Once 80 per cent of the credit limit is reached, a person from our call centre will immediately call you and politely request for the payment of billed calls to be made. If the payment is not made, outgoing calls will be blocked.

We don’t offer the call-conferencing facility, unless we are sure of who is vouching for this facility. I would say that the entire GSM Club (telecom companies using the GSM technology) would be running a delinquent rate of one to two per cent.

BPL, Airtel and Orange in Mumbai share information on defaulting customers and we will not take a customer, if he has been thrown out of any of the networks. Vijay Grover, chief operating officer ( Maharashtra and Goa circle), Idea Cellular We did have some subscription-based frauds when we launched the business some six-seven years ago.

Two years ago, we installed the Subex fraud management system, which is one of the best telecom fraud management systems in the world. We have good agencies, which visit the homes of our potential subscribers and undertake credit verification.

STD/ISD connections should never be given without credit verification. We have a credit limit for our STD/ISD facility and our system issues an alert and a daily list of subscribers,who have crossed their credit limit. Effective co-ordination between all telecom companies to prevent fraud is still not in place.

Sharad Gupta, general manager (customer service delivery), Maharashtra and Goa , Airtel Our advanced fraud management system is called the ‘Ranger’. The software prevents past defaulters from re-entry. In addition to this, our fraud management team also carries out a manual check.

The Ranger system is also able to trace the electronic identity of the customer’s cellphone instrument. For first-time customers, valued-added services like STD/ISD conferencing are not offered. Such customers are also offered a low credit limit.We also have a special creditlimit setting software. This picks up the need for telephony and the customer’s capacity to pay.

The system is also able to automatically generate an intimation for interim payment, the moment the customer crosses 80 per cent of his limit. The customer has to make the payment within 48 hours, failing which, outgoing calls are blocked. Dinesh Gulati, business head ( Maharashtra and Goa ), Reliance Infocomm Limited.

We have a very stringent verification system. Our address - verification agency visits the customer’s home and checks if he/she has actually applied for the handset. The handset and service is activated only after thorough credit verification.

Later, our in-house tele-calling agency makes a ‘welcome’ call within 48 hours of the service being offered. This is a handholding exercise, where features of the service and the tariff are explained to the customer. First-time customers are not offered ISD facilities.

If the agency suspects the customer during their ‘welcome’ call, a second address-verification is carried out. The welcome call is followed by the bill explanation call, where the customer’s inclination to pay is ascertained.

In addition to this process, we have a very advanced fraud management system called the ADC. Whenever a customer crosses 80 per cent of his limit, an interim bill is generated and an SMS is sent to the customer.

In addition to the ADC system, we have the ‘Data Dupe’ software, which checks the history of every customer.