TheCable

A man identified as Abode on Twitter has narrated how a roadside SIM-card vendor allegedly attempted to sell his data to kidnappers and fraudsters by registering him twice.

In a Twitter thread, the man said he had patronised a roadside vendor to get a new SIM card. He said the process went on smoothly until the vendor captured him twice, making him suspicious.

“So I queried him but he gave a flimsy excuse,” he said.

The man said immediately the registration was completed, he got a welcome text message indicating he registered two numbers instead of one.

“I asked why two numbers registered in my name instead of one, the vendor said ‘it’s normal, that sometimes the issue is from the network operators’,” he wrote.

“The next day, I went to Glo office to lay a complain and the moment I mentioned what brought me, the manager there said “these guys again? Why doing these to innocent people”?. That was when I realized the gravity of what just happened. The second number was deregistered, the case was reported and the guy was picked up.

“Questioning the vendor, he said they usually use people’s details to register other sim cards which they resell to “car trackers” at a higher price.

“On further interrogation, he confessed that he uses people’s details to register sim cards which they sell to fraudsters, ritualists, kidnappers and he makes a lot of money from the business.

“Now, imagine if he sold this second number to a kidnapper or a fraudster and when tracked, my picture and details would pop up and it would be difficult to deny.

“I’m putting this out here because a lot of innocent people are in prisons today because of cr!me they know nothing about.

“While doing your registration, please be attentive and report any suspicion to the right authority.”

I wanted to get a new SIM to complement the one I already have. Then I decided to patronise a road side sim vendor and the unexpected happened.

During registration, I gave out the needed details to the vendor and the registration was going on smoothly until it got to capturing.

— ABODE (@iamAbode) June 26, 2022

His thread sparked reactions on the microblogging platform, with some users narrating similar experiences.

“This happened to me 3 weeks ago. The guy gave me some flimsy excuses when I queried about why he has to do the same registration thrice. Maybe I need to contact @GloWorld to lay complain,” a user wrote.