JEDDAH, 4 April 2003 — Recent false bomb alerts in the Jeddah headquarters of Saudi Arabian Airlines and at the Mahmal Commercial Center in the downtown area of the city and at the northern terminal of King Abdul Aziz International Airport were all the result of people making calls using unauthorized prepaid SAWA mobile phone cards, according to Al-Madinah newspaper.

Palestine Street here has become a beehive for buyers and sellers of SAWA cards, which are required to activate mobile phones. Through the official channels, buyers usually have to join huge queues at authorized outlets, fill out an application form, hand over a copy of their iqama (residence permit) and pay SR200.

But thousands of Saudis and foreigners are opting for the black market instead, which is controlled by Third World immigrants. They charge between SR250 and SR300 for each SAWA card. Buyers pay the extra because of the advantage of remaining nameless and faceless.

Neither an ID/Iqama number nor an application form is required, and this is the reason why those who made the false bomb alerts chose to do so, according to Al-Madinah.

Saeed Al-Zahrani, a mobile phone store owner in Jeddah, told Al-Madinah that legitimate stores have been hit hard since Ramadan by dramatic growth in the parallel black market.

“There are many foreigners selling SAWA cards on the streets, despite the best efforts of the Passport Department and police,” he said. “They scatter when the police arrive on the scene, only to regroup within minutes after the police cars disappear. The foreigners are selling cellular phones at throwaway prices. We have to cut our prices by half just to keep up with them.”

Yasser Hashob, another store owner, also expressed his outrage at the black marketeers.

“They are illegally selling phones and SAWA cards in front of our stores in broad daylight,” he said. “They show up after Maghreb prayers and stay until the middle of the night. It’s not fair. They don’t have to pay any overheads, whereas we have to pay rent and utility bills — for what, to sell hardly 20 percent of our stock?”

Store owner Saad Al-Dossary said that “these thieves are in effect stealing our business.”

He added: “I don’t blame them as much as I blame those who buy from them, even though they know it’s illegal. The buyers must know that some of these cell phones are stolen or in bad condition and may not work. I remember one day a customer came to my store to buy a SAWA card to activate his new phone that he had bought from one of these foreigners. The phone wouldn’t accept the card because the memory was damaged. I think this should be a lesson to everybody not to buy phones from such people.”

Saleh Al-Jasser, an official at the Saudi Telecom Company, told Al-Madinah that STC has 250 branches to cater for buyers of SAWA cards and 100 legal agents throughout Saudi Arabia.

He said that mistakes are made here and there but “we are trying our best to serve our subscribers. We will work together with our agents around the Kingdom to put an end to this black market.”