Thane police bust international racket of SIM cards use for cyber fraud; 3 held

Thane: Thane police have busted an international racket of supplying SIM cards to fraudsters in places like Cambodia, Dubai and China for share trading fraud and other cyber crimes, officials said.

Three persons have been arrested in this connection - two from Chhattisgarh and one from Delhi - and 779 pre-activated SIM cards were seized from them, Thane Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cybercrime and EOW, Parag Manere told reporters here on Wednesday.

The police suspect that around 3,000 SIM cards have been put to use in a similar manner, he said.

During a probe into 16 such cases registered in Maharashtra's Thane, the police also got a lead that these crimes were being committed through WhatsApp with the use of 30 mobile phones and nearly 2,600 SIM cards activated from Chhattisgarh, Tripura and other places.

Upon verification, it was found that these numbers were activated through a WhatsApp IP in Hong Kong, the official said.

While probing a specific case of cheating of Rs 29.3 lakh, the police found some SIM cards and the mobile handsets were being used from Chhattisgarh.

On July 5, the police arrested Aftab Irshad Debar (22) and Manishkumar Mohit Deshmukh (27), both from Chhattisgarh, and seized 779 pre-activated SIM cards, a laptop, two Wi-Fi routers, 23 mobile handsets, 50 debit/credit cards and 20 cheque books/passbooks from their possession, the official said.

During their interrogation, it came to light that one Bhaijan @ Hafiz Like Ahmed (48), from south Delhi, purchased the SIM cards and sold them to a gang based in Dubai, and cheated people in various cyber crimes. The police subsequently arrested him, he said.

The gang members procured the SIM cards from street vendors by fraudulently capturing the biometric fingerprints of customers who came to those shops.

The SIM cards were then activated and linked to the bank accounts where the ill-gotten money was transferred, the police said.

The associates of the arrested accused operating from Raipur, Bilaspur (in Chhattisgarh) and Delhi supplied the SIM cards to criminals in Cambodia, Dubai China and other countries who used them in cybercrimes there, they said.

The arrested persons also informed the police that around 3,000 SIM cards had already been supplied in foreign countries in a similar manner.

Further probe indicated that around six bank accounts were linked to these SIM cards, and a mega financial cheating racket was operating, the police said.

The police also came across 14 similar cases registered in Rajasthan, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat and Kerala. This information was obtained through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, the official said.

Search was on for the associates of the arrested accused, the police said.