From January next year, people buying prepaid SIM cards will have to provide their personal data. This comes amid Lithuania’s efforts to crack down on phone scammers.
According to the Communications Regulatory Authority (RRA), the three most popular prepaid SIM cards in Lithuania are Ežys, Labas and Pildyk.
“This is the state's way of limiting the activities of phone scammers. Existing customers will not have to do anything – they will not be affected by the changes and will continue to use their previously purchased and activated numbers as usual,” said Asta Buitkutė, head of public relations at Tele2, which owns Pildyk.
Only new customers will have to register, Buitkutė said.
“When registering online, it will be possible to confirm your identity via your internet bank login, as well as Mobile ID or Smart-ID apps or by taking a photo of your ID and taking a selfie,” she added.
This will not affect international customers, who will be able to identify using a picture of their identity document, or by visiting a store. This option will be available for all operators. Telia, which owns Ežys, will also offer a third-party app for authentication.
The new regulations will affect socially vulnerable people and those living in remote locations, according to Marta Bogužaitė, head of the Labas team at Bitė Lietuva.
“They may experience some inconvenience. Finally, the mandatory registration of prepaid cards increases the operational costs of communication providers. This tends to have an impact on the cost of services over time,” she said.
She said this approach to fight phone scammers previously proved ineffective.
“Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Ireland, Finland and other countries do not have such registration obligations. SIM cards from other EU countries will continue to be used in Lithuania as if they were at home, without the need to register them,” Bogužaitė said.
“It is likely that a secondary market for Labas and similar cards will soon emerge in Lithuania, possibly trading SIM cards registered in the names of vulnerable people or non-operating companies. This would circumvent regulation,” she added.
However, Lithuania’s Communications Regulatory Authority (RRA) said tackling anonymity was a must.
“They are completely anonymous and almost untraceable. In other words, their holders cannot be identified. This criminal activity extorts money and personal data from users, and creates anonymous accounts on various online platforms, through which disinformation is disseminated and used to organise smuggling and other threats to state security,” said Jurga Grudzinskaitė-Gainovskė, a representative of the Communications Regulatory Authority (RRT).
According to RRT, 1.23 million prepaid cards were used in Lithuania in the third quarter of this year.
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