NCC, Partners Technologists to Curb Call Masking

NCC, Partners Technologists to Curb Call Masking

James Sowole in Akure

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) engaged a technology company to curb incidence of call masking.

The Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau of NCC, Mrs Felicia Onwuegbulam, disclosed the action of the commission at the 43rd Edition of the Consumer Town Hall Meeting held at Owo, Ondo State.

The meeting which had as its theme: “Using Information and Education as tool for Consumer Empowerment and Protection,” featured addresses by representatives of service providers and provide opportunities for consumers to ask questions directly from both providers and regulators.

Onwuegbulam, who was represented by her deputy, Alhaji Ismail Adedigba, described call masking as a situation in which one receives an international call but only for the handset to display a number allocated by a local service provider in Nigeria.

The director said call masking makes it impossible to trace the number because any call make to the number can never get through.

The director, who described call masking as a criminal act, said the NCC would do everything possible to stop the practice to protect consumers from falling victims of fraudulent activities.

While calling on service providers to configure their networks in a way to make masking impossible, the director advised consumers to report to the commission whenever they experience such situation.

Onwuegbulam, advised consumers to contact the NCC on 622 toll free line with details of the call to include the time of the call, the date, number and the duration of the call.

“At the NCC, the telecom consumers are the target beneficiaries of all our activities which make them enjoy primary focus in terms of ensuring that they get good quality of service, value for money spent, timely and fair redress of complaints and protection from unwholesome practices of some service providers”, she said.

At the meeting, consumers were educated on various platform through which they can make complaints on services being rendered by providers and how it affects them.

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