Telcos deny allegations of non-cooperation in anti-scam effort

Telecom service providers in the country on Thursday hit back at home minister Imran Abdulla's statement that he did not have the full support and cooperation of telecom service providers to stop the rising number of scams.

Imran expressed concern over Dhiraagu and Ooredoo not sharing complete data gathered from the mobile tower installed in Maafushi prison.

In a written reply to a question from MDP MP from Maafannu Central constituency Ibrahim Rasheed regarding the tower, Imran said that the tower was installed in the prison premises last year in collaboration with the prison department, police and communications authority to prevent crimes committed by inmates in Maafushi prison using mobile phones secretly.

Imran, however, said that data from the tower was being stored on the servers of network operators.

"While this information is stored with Dhiraagu and Ooredoo, they are not providing complete information about call records to the police," he said.

Dhiraagu and Ooredoo were asked by Atoll Times about the minister's comments and both the companies said they were cooperating as per the existing procedure.

Dhiraagu said it was "cooperating with the communications authority in accordance with its recommendations".

"As per the regulatory procedures we have, if the law enforcers ask us to provide any information they want, we will always provide that information," Chief Commercial Officer of Ooredoo Hussain Niyaz added.

The parliamentary committee on Public Sector Enterprises (PSBs) has taken up the issue of scam calls and siphoning off funds from bank accounts and approved a direction to set up a multi-agency task force and set up a mechanism within 15 days for agencies to work together to combat scamming.