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In a significant crackdown on digital arrest scams, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked 39 point-of-sales (PoS) operators for selling 1,100 “ghost SIM cards” to cyber criminals based in Southeast Asian countries, who used them to target unsuspecting individuals in India, according to officials on Saturday. The PoS operators came under scrutiny by the country’s anti-cybercrime unit, I4C, which is under the Home Ministry, for selling SIM cards belonging to Indian telecom operators that were active in Southeast Asian countries, where cyber criminals were allegedly operating.
Over 64,000 such SIM cards issued by 1,930 PoS operators met the criteria and were further shortlisted based on at least 10 complaints against these SIM cards, narrowing the PoS operators under suspicion to 84, officials said.
During further analysis, it emerged that 39 PoS operators were currently active and allegedly engaged in creating “ghost SIM cards”, which were sold to cybercriminals operating from Southeast Asian countries to target gullible Indians, they said.
The CBI investigation revealed that SIM cards are issued based on electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC). When a customer applies for a SIM, the point-of-sale person completes an e-KYC and issues a SIM.
The alleged scamsters would deceive customers by telling them that their e-KYC had failed and they should try again.
The SIM generated for the first time was handed over to the customer, while the second one – the “Ghost SIM” – was sold to cybercriminals without the genuine customers knowing that a SIM generated in their name was being used by cybercriminals, officials said.
These ghost SIM cards were then used not only to deceive the victims but also to create mule bank accounts to receive the money, which were later closed to avoid detection or reveal the money trail, they said.
Since these were Indian numbers but operating from Southeast Asian countries, the ‘digital arrest’ victim receiving the call got an impression that it was a local call originating from within India.
The CBI suspects that executives within the telecom operators may have played a role in activating these ghost SIM cards, and the agency will probe the matter during its investigation to unravel the criminal conspiracy, officials said.
The agency has so far arrested more than five individuals connected to the racket and conducted widespread searches across India last week.
The searches were conducted as part of the ongoing ‘Operation Chakra V’, which is aimed at curbing cybercrimes and digital arrest-related frauds, they said.
The raids were carried out on the premises of various point-of-sale agents of telecom operators in Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, a CBI spokesperson said.
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