Thursday, Me Alexi Oriol, Justice of the Peace of Carrefour announced that the anti-fraud unit of the National Council of Telecommunications (CONATEL) together with the National Police of Haiti (PNH) had dismantled Tuesday at Mon Repos 48, a network of criminals specialized in "by passing", fraud that consists of diverting international phone calls to local networks.

During this operation the PNH seized 3,224 SIM cards belonging to the Digicel and 50 other to the company Natcom, 8 antennas, an invertor, 8 batteries and one laptop.

This is the secondn network dismantled after that of Clerveau street in Petion-Ville in 2011 which allowed that time the seizure of two devices that may contain 108 SIM cards (treatment of 216 international telephone calls simultaneously), five outdoor antennas, three laptops, two desktop computer, a GPS and eight surveillance cameras.

Jean Larrio Pierre, Legal Adviser for the CONATEL said that the phenomenon of "passing by" in Haiti constituted a significant shortfall for both the State [taxes] and operators [revenue], reiterating the commitment of CONATEL to end this fraudulent practice. Recall that in 2011 the economic losses were estimated at 12 million U.S. dollars annually.

According to Me Alexi Oriol, the main suspect in this case, would be named Jean Moïse Renondo, actively sought by the police for fraud.

Learn more about the Bypass :

For example a call via a legitimate route would normally cost $0.8 with an initiation fee of $0.5 in country A and a termination fee of $0.3 in country B.

In the case of a bypass through VoIP (Voice over IP) the initiation fee is $0.15 and the termination fee is $0.05. The mobile operator in country B loses $0.25 (0.3-0.05) in termination fees, which results in an 83% loss, so the state also loses income (tax). There are also bypass via GSM technology (GSM Gateway), Bypass can also be national, incoming or outgoing. Bypassing interconnect points via cheaper routes such as the Internet.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-4530-haiti-communication-important-seizure-of-telephony-equipment.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3187-haiti-communication-meeting-at-the-palace-to-fight-the-bypassing.html

TB/ HaitiLibre