Cabman tampers with international mobile calls

Fungai Lupande Court Reporter
A taxi driver who set up equipment allowing him to manipulate cellular network protocols has appeared in court facing charges of operating a telecommunication system without a licence.

Watson Gatsi manipulated incoming international calls to make them appear as local calls.

He appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Lazini Ncube who remanded him to May 29 on $100 bail.

The complainant is the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz), represented by its engineer, Mr William Crofate.

The court heard that since international calls involved different networks, service providers agree on a currency for settlement of traffic charges.

Local networks are also interconnected and pay each other interconnection fees for exchange of telecommunications traffic.

It is alleged that in January this year, Gatsi set up a telecommunications system, which allegedly allowed him access to international traffic all over the world.

The court heard that Gatsi was able to turn international traffic into local traffic.

Gatsi prejudiced local and international networks of payment, it is alleged.

It is alleged that Gatsi also acquired SIM boxes which received international terminating traffic in the form of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

The SIM box has software to manipulate incoming international calls to appear as if they are originating from local mobile lines.

According to the State, Gatsi is not licensed to run such a telecommunications service.

On January 27, detectives received information from a fraud management specialist at Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, Mr Gift Zumbika, of the irregularity of international traffic by-pass.

It is alleged that some calls were diverted and appeared to be generated by Econet sim cards.

Gatsi was arrested the same day and he led the police to flat number 110 at Princess Place at the intersection of David Livingstone Avenue and Ninth Street.

He also led directives to flat number 34 at Dover Court, 1 Montagu Avenue at the intersection of Prince Edward Street and Josiah Chinamano Avenue.

The machines were recovered and disconnected.

Meanwhile, a former member of the Police Constabulary who was expelled from a Neighbourhood Watch Committee and did not surrender his uniform and identification card, allegedly used the items to extort money from motorists while posing as a cop, writes Tendai Rupapa.

Lovemore Gatsva (44) of 2517-121 Street, Egypt in Highfield, was reportedly banned from assisting the police sometime last year.

He appeared before magistrate Ms Barbra Chimboza yesterday facing charges of possessing articles for criminal use and was remanded to May 24 on $50 bail.

Prosecutor Mr Sebastian Mutizirwa alleged that on May 2 at around 10am, Detective Constable Mackenzie Chitsowe received information to the effect that Gatsva was moving around posing as a member of the force.

It was alleged that Gatsva was going around Machipisa commuter omnibus rank collecting money from kombi crews, while pretending to be a police officer.

Acting on the tip-off, on May 8, detectives waylaid Gatsva who had arrived at the rank at around 6am to conduct his daily duties as a “cop”, the court heard.

Gatsva was subsequently arrested. The police detectives ordered Gatsva to take them to his house for further searches, the State alleged.

At his house, the detectives found police uniform and a police constabulary identification card.

Further investigations revealed that Gatsva was discharged in September last year for undisclosed reasons.

However, following his dismissal from the force, Gatsva did not surrender the uniform and the identification card.

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