Bahrain’s telecoms watchdog is investigating claims that ten expats banned from travelling due to outstanding phone bills were victims of identity theft.
Travel bans were imposed on ten Indian expats who had allegedly failed to pay their mobile phone bills.
However, Indian diplomats have claimed their nationals never actually registered for mobile services and could be victims of identity theft, reported the Gulf Daily News.
Bahrain’s regulatory body the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) on Monday pledged to investigate the cases and take strict action against violation of mobile service providers.
“The authority is currently investigating around 10 cases in which consumers complained of identity theft, and it is clear that the operators have not met their obligations as per the telecom law,” TRA cyber security director Dr Khalid bin Duaij Al Khalifa was quoted as saying.
“We are deeply concerned with the amount of open cases that we have uncovered in this investigation and are prepared to explore every possible avenue within our authority to help resolve them.
“We will cooperate with the relevant authorities to raise awareness of this issue.”
The India expats are presently stranded in Bahrain after telecommunication companies issued travel bans because of the perceived non-payment of mobile phone bills.
The TRA plans to issue guidelines to regulate the registration of mobile telecommunications services, especially for expat customers, according to the newspaper.
“The proposed regulation will mandate operators to have in place an end-to-end process when registering, verifying and updating consumer information to ensure all their subscribers are legitimate and limit the scope of abuse that has led to the current situation,” added Al Khalifa said.
