Prepaid Card Fraud Adversely Affects Vimpelcom’s Beeline
Staniol, an official Russian wholesaler of prepaid mobile phone cards, produced US$4 million worth of fraudulent cards for Vimpelcom’s popular Bee-Plus prepayment plan and sold them to its partners two weeks ago before disappearing without a trace.
This is the largest forgery operation to be executed in Russia’s telecom sector, according to Vedomosti.
Vimpelcom, Russia’s second largest mobile operator, has declined to offer any exact details of the financial damage done by the operation.
Staniol is a small but well-known company that held a 1% market share.
Vimpel-Communications (VimpelCom) is Russia’s second largest mobile operator. VimpelCom’s global system for mobile communications (GSM) network is used by approximately 2.6 million subscribers, of which over 2.3 million reside in the Moscow area. Vimpelcom is GSM mobile operator which markets the “beeline” brand. VimpelCom’s owners include Russia’s Alpha Group and Norway’s Telenor, with each owning a 25% plus one share stake. -(World IT Report.com)
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