IN 2015, brothers Devon and Kenrick O’ Connor inadvertently found themselves on the wrong side of the law, when they were arrested and accused of murder, spending five days in lock-up before the dust settled and it was revealed that it was actually a misunderstanding over a re-used cell phone number.

As it turned out, the men had recently purchased a cell phone number, but what they were never told by the telecommunications provider was that the cell phone number they purchased had been previously owned. In their case, the previous owner of the cell number was a murder victim whose phone was stolen during a robbery.

Like the O’ Connor brothers many consumers have experienced very unpleasant situations after purchasing previously-owned cell phone numbers, without being informed by the service providers that the numbers were previously owned.

“It has happened to me three times in a row,” shared consumer Tevin Banger. He further explained that: “It first happened to me a year ago. Now, I recently bought a [cell number] and I’m receiving threats from private calls ever so often,”
Over this past weekend, a social media post from 2018, made by Niaomi Williams, made the rounds, with many finding funny the heated words she had for a telecommunications company, after she was accused of stealing someone’s cell phone, when she purchased what turned out to be a previously-used cell phone number.

“They would call from different numbers leaving threats for me,” Williams told the Guyana Chronicle.

“I knew I purchased my number; I didn’t steal from anyone, so, out of anger, I resorted to making a very disrespectful post on Facebook towards the company.”

Williams said she kept the number for six months but eventually decided to give it up, as she could no longer take the torment. Her opinion was that telecommunications companies should be made to divulge to consumers when a cell number has had a previous owner.
The practice of “recycling” or reselling previously-owned cell phone numbers to new users, after they’ve expired from the previous user, is one practised by both of Guyana’s two major telecommunications companies – Digicel and GTT. However the situation is not limited to Guyana, and is practised by other service providers all across the world.

When purchasing a new cell phone number, consumers are issued with a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM card) which is assigned the cell phone number. Though the telecommunications companies do not recycle the SIM card, once it becomes inactive the cell phone number is up for grabs.

“The recycling process is necessary since there are limited number ranges available. Therefore Digicel has to find a balance between managing the number ranges allocated to it while ensuring there is a long enough period before a SIM is recycled,” Communications Manager for Digicel, Vidya Sanichara explained, in an invited comment.

At Digicel, once a number has had no top-up activity for over 150 days, it becomes inactive and is made available for recycling; this still applies even if the number is still being utilised to make and receive calls.

However, as an added feature, for a fee of $900, consumers can activate a life extension for a further 180 days.

Though companies do not inform consumers that the cell phone number purchased could be passed on to another owner if disconnected, the “Terms and Conditions” contract issued by the telecommunications companies, when consumers purchase a SIM, usually state that “the telephone number and SIM allocated to you remain our property”.

The Digicel contract also further states that “on disconnection the telephone number associated with the SIM will be lost”.

At GTT, Public Relations Officer, Jasmin Harris, said that the company gives customers up to six months.

“A number can be reissued to a customer if it has not been used for a minimum of six months,” Harris said in a statement.

Some consumers however believe that they should, at least, be informed that they are purchasing a number that was previously owned by someone else, given the implications that could emanate from the situation.

With cell phone numbers, more often than not, becoming linked to consumers’ personal accounts such as Whatsapp, Facebook, and email, as well as financial accounts such as Amazon and Paypal, consumers are becoming more and more worried about whose hands their personal information could end up in.

Though the cell phone number would have changed to someone else, consumers’ personal accounts can still continue to be attached to the cell phone number and it becomes easy for the new owner to even lock previous owners out of their accounts. Popular Linden TV host, Lester Glen, said that when his number was recycled he went as far as reaching out to the new owner of his number and buying the person a new number, just to get back his number.

In addition to having his number reassigned, Glen has also been on the receiving end of a previously owned cell number, and he did not feel comfortable with the kind of personal information he was receiving about the previous owner of his new number.

“About 2 years ago I bought a GTT SIM card, and a lot of personal information came to the Whatsapp, even Facebook messenger. I got all the information for the person. I was like what I get myself involved in. I didn’t keep the number because I don’t want people’s stuff,” Glen said.

West Coast mom, Priya Persaud, recently bought a cell number for her daughter to receive school work due to school closures brought on by COVID-19 regulations. She was not happy when persons started to call and message her seven-year-old child, thinking she was the previous owner.

“The teachers started this Whatsapp group to send school work, so a month ago I bought her a number. People calling all sorts of hours in the night. Imagine some weird overseas number was messaging at 4 in the morning,” Persaud shared of her experience.

Marvin Alexander shared that he is currently blocked from activating Whatsapp on a cell number he paid for, as the previous owner is still using it. Whatsapp enables users to “lock” their profiles with a Personal Identification Number (PIN), so even if another person gets the number new owners cannot access the Whatsapp without that PIN.

Public Relations Officer of the Competitions and Consumers Affairs Commission, Allison Parker, said that the matter is one that would fall under the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

Emails to the PUC for a comment on the situation had not been responded to up to press time.