(Business in Cameroon) - Between January and August 2015, more than 65 million calling minutes were illegally ‘’stolen’’ by Sim box users. According to a telecom expert addressing the private newspaper ‘’Le Messager’’, the use of this technology, caused Cameroon’s telecom operators to lose more than FCFA 13 billion over this period.

The Sim box, a system containing many Sim cards, allows its users to receive incoming international calls appear as though they were local. Those fraudsters can in that way, avoid paying the normal rates associated with international calls, thus causing losses for Cameroon’s local operators and its public Treasury.

On August 28, 2015, Fonfou Fosso and Tchioffo Tazioti, two young Cameroonian were caught in Douala by the local police for using a Sim box. And according to the law on cyber-criminality and cyber-security adopted on December 28, 2010, each of them could receive a 5 to 10 years imprisonment sentence in addition to a 5 to 10 FCFA billion compensation.

BRM