By Martin Ekpeke
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has called on telecommunications consumers in Nigeria to report the local numbers through which they receive foreign calls as masked calls to the Commission for proper tracking.
The telecom regulator’s Executive Vice Chairman, Prof Umar Danbatta made the call at the 85th edition of the Telecom Consumer Parliament in Lagos last week.
Danbatta noted that the call is part of numerous avenues it is seeking to tame the menace of call masking, which the Commission has described not only as an embarrassment, but a threat to national security and the country’s economy.
He allayed the fears in some quarters that reporting a crime might implicate their caller relatives or an acquaintance, assuring that is not the case as the overseas callers is unaware of his or her number being masked at the point of termination in the destination country.
“NCC is set to hold the bull by the horn towards putting an end to call masking menace in the country. To this end, we are leveraging different consumer platforms to deepen awareness campaign on call masking and in this respect, we advise consumers to report the local numbers through which they receive foreign calls as masked calls to the Commission for proper tracking,” Danbatta, who was represented by the Director Consumer Affairs Bureau, Felicia Onwuegbuchulam said.
He added that consumers should be patriotic enough to report call masking cases to the NCC, based on the attendant security and economic implications as well as anti-competition dimension of call masking in the telecom industry.
Such feedback, according to NCC will go a long way in assisting the commission to investigate the call masking cases reported, identify the perpetrators and subsequently take appropriate regulatory measures towards curbing the call masking menace.