MTN Nigeria Discontinues SIM Swap By Proxy

The Corporate Services Executive
of MTN Nigeria, Akinwale
Goodluck, has announced the
decision of the company to
discontinue SIM swaps by proxy
with effect from June 7.
Mr. Goodluck said
this in a statement
on Thursday in
Lagos. He said that
after June 7,
customers who wished to swap or
replace their SIM cards as a result of
their phones being stolen, destroyed
or misplaced must do so in person.
According to him, the decision was
taken in order to protect customers'
data and preserve the overall
integrity of the SIM swap process.
"In recent months, unscrupulous
elements have started to exploit the
proxy SIM swap process and there
have been incidents of unauthorised
people fraudulently obtaining SIM
cards belonging to others. "The
implication of this decision is that
customers will now have to appear
in person at the service outlets
nearest to them to request and
obtain new SIM cards.
"Such requests will be treated
promptly after proper ID validation
from the SIM registration database
and upon presentation of valid
identification such as ID card,
international passport or driver's
licence," he said.
Mr. Goodluck added that the
customer would also be required to
answer security questions before a
new SIM card would be issued.
He called on the company's
subscribers to urgently register their
SIMs in view of the June 30 deadline
or risk suspension of their mobile
lines. Mr. Goodluck urged customers
to register all SIM cards in their
possession including those in
phones, laptops, POS machines and
all other SIM-enabled devices.
The Customer Relations Executive of
MTN, Akin Braithwaite, said that the
organisation attached great
seriousness to the issue of customer
and data security.
Mr. Braithwaite said that a significant
number of SIM swap-related fraud
were committed by people who
were very close to the victims and
had access to their personal data. He
said that the new requirement that
customers should carry out the SIM
swaps in person would check the
activities of fraudsters in this regard.