14 June 2019

Police in the Moroccan cities of Casablanca, Marrakech, Oujda, Meknes and Khenitra arrested 100 suspects with links to unauthorised call centres.

A statement from the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) said the suspects were accused of the “theft, transfer, and piracy” of phone calls. 

The accused, whom authorities are referred to as “fictive call agents,” are thought to be part of a network of unauthorised call centres that have established their business to benefit off authorised centres and telecom firms in Morocco.

DGSN established that the modus operandi of the “vast network of fictive call centres” was to call their victims via a foreign telephone number.

The telephone of the victim was left to ring for a very short time — once in most cases — tricking the customer to call back, according to DGSN. They chose foreign numbers to lure victims to call back much sooner than they would have normally, under the false impression that it must be an important call from overseas.

Once the victim called back, DGSN said, they immediately transferred to one of the fictive centres whose agents’ job was to keep the caller on the line for as long as possible.

The end game was to “exhaust the victim’s balance” and have the telecom company pay for the remainder of the call duration in foreign currency. The losses have so far been estimated at MAD2m.

At the time Northern African Wireless Communications went to press, 94 call agents and six managers affiliated to the fictive network had been arrested.