On March 3rd, the government supported the Ministry of the Interior’s proposal for mandatory registration of prepaid SIM card users from October 1st. This would mean that it would no longer be possible to purchase and use prepaid SIM cards anonymously – they would have to be registered in the name of a specific person.
In total, there are currently around 400,000 unregistered SIM cards in Latvia.
Mobile operators have emphasised that it is not only fraudsters who use them. Prepaid cards are mostly chosen by seniors and people with lower incomes, as they allow them to better control their spending. In addition, given their purchasing power, some users prefer to buy a new prepaid card rather than top up their existing one, as this is more cost-effective for them, even if it means changing their number.
Such cards are also used by tourists from third countries to communicate more cheaply in Latvia, as well as by parents when buying their children’s first phone. Prepaid numbers are also used by people who want to publish a short-term advertisement, for example, for the sale of real estate or a car, without publishing their permanent phone number.
State police data show that the proportion of unregistered prepaid mobile phone cards used in crimes, including fraud, is around 40% of all detected crimes, and this proportion is tending to increase.
Last year, the most common type of fraud was telephone fraud, both in terms of the number of incidents and victims and the amount of money defrauded. A total of 6,479 cases of telephone fraud were recorded, accounting for approximately 55% of all fraud cases.
The Ministry of the Interior pointed out that the opinions of all parties involved, such as mobile operators and non-governmental organisations, including the Latvian Pensioners’ Federation and the Latvian Traders’ Association, were heard and taken into account in the preparation of the amendments.
The introduction of new requirements in the electronic communications sector may increase the administrative burden and create a need for investment, but the benefits – a reduction in telephone fraud and other criminal offences – will outweigh the costs incurred, the ministry noted.
Oskars Fīrmanis, representative of Tele2, pointed out that, overall, he views the Ministry of the Interior’s efforts to tackle fraud positively, as it is a pressing and important issue. but at the same time he mentioned the experience of Lithuania, where such a registration system was also introduced, which did not apply to the existing customer base, and where it can be seen that the number of fraud cases has not decreased. Therefore, in Tele2’s view, this will not be a magic wand that will significantly reduce telephone fraud.
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