News / Complaints of some fraud in SIM registration in biometric system already through various online channels It turns out. Some are alleging that unscrupulous retailers are tricking people into registering extra SIMs with their fingerprints. The government has taken initiative to register SIMs of mobile phones in biometric system as one of the steps to prevent crime through technology. Some additional steps are also required to make this registration process a success (and to prevent bogus registrations).

And I believe that the government, or more specifically the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), can easily solve most of the problems caused by these fake registrations.

• The government may launch a central SMS portal where overall SIM registration information will be recorded through coordination with each mobile operator. Customers will be able to know the total number of SIMs registered under that NID by typing their respective NID numbers to a specific number. For example, suppose someone sends a message to xxxxx by typing his own NID number. He was then informed from xxxxx number that “a total of so many (x) SIMs are registered under this NID number”. If anyone sees this number in the return message and suspects that the SIM has been registered using his NID and fingerprint, then he can contact BTRC and take action against the registering retailer / company representative regarding that SIM.

But there is a privacy issue here. Nowadays it is not very difficult to collect someone’s national identity card number. So some people may not want to tell others exactly how many SIMs they have. Some people may be embarrassed if BTRC only gives SIM number with NID number through SMS.

The government could use another strategy to mitigate this risk. It is not necessary to send a message from ‘any mobile number’ to know the total number of SIMs registered under a particular NID. Only by sending a message from a SIM already registered through that specific NID can the total number of SIMs under that NID be known, in which case it is better.

Then with the help of BTRC there should be a way to know all the mobile numbers registered through the said NID and who, when, where the SIM was registered through fraud and take action.

• But there are many customers who are not aware of the exact number of SIMs under their NID. If so, another arrangement can be made. The total number of SIMs under an NID can be automatically sent via SMS to all the SIMs registered under that NID. And through the media, everyone can be made aware that everyone needs to know the total number of SIMs registered in their NID. So everyone will then want to free their identity from the fake SIM at their own risk.

• Then in the future, if someone registers a SIM using NID, a message can be sent to the previous SIMs that “you have registered such and such mobile number through this NID”.

Then it is hoped that the risk of fake registration will be greatly reduced.