Mumbai's cyber cops bust illegal SIM card racket, arrest 8

An investigation revealed that cyber frauds were using 5,000-7,000 SIM cards on a single device in a month

MUMBAI: The central cyber police have busted a racket of illegal SIM card suppliers and arrested eight persons from different parts of the city, including six direct sales executives of two leading mobile service providers and two shop-owners from Colaba.

The accused generated new SIM cards by porting inactive or discontinued mobile numbers and duplicating biometric details of hapless customers.

The accused generated new SIM cards by porting inactive or discontinued mobile numbers and duplicating biometric details of hapless customers; they then sold the SIM cards to cyber frauds and foreign tourists at inflated prices, for ₹5,000-10,000 a piece, said police officials. They were arrested following a probe into an online trading scam complaint, which revealed that cyber frauds, including customers of the accused, were using 5,000-7,000 SIM cards on a single device in a month, the officials added.

Cyber fraud complaint

In July, a Mumbai central resident approached the central cyber police station saying he had been duped of ₹51.33 lakh by cyber frauds who ran a WhatsApp group on online share trading. He was randomly added to the group named ‘MSFL Stock Chart 33’ on May 14. Enticed by tips from the group admins regarding investments on certain trading platforms and members’ claims regarding massive profits, he invested the money in several tranches till June 28, with his virtual account showing unbelievably high returns. His bluff was called when he tried withdrawing the money, he told the police.

“We started following the WhatsApp group mentioned by the complainant, zeroed in on some numbers which were most active and started tracking them,” said inspector Mausami Patil from the central cyber police station.

In October, it was found that one of the numbers which was being used in West Bengal had been recently ported from Airtel to Vi in Colaba, through Rohit Kanhaiyalal Yadav, a direct sales executive with Vi.

“The number was used in West Bengal from October 22 to 26 and then was deactivated. But it was reactivated two days later, on October 28, in Diva. This raised our suspicion,” said Patil.

By then, police had found out that Yadav lived in Diva. He was detained soon and his interrogation led to the discovery of a WhatsApp group where he and other direct sales executives shared details about the generation illegal SIM cards using biometrics of customers who purchased SIM cards or porting old and inactive numbers.

Identifying, nabbing the accused

The WhatsApp group Yadav told the police about had three admins – Mahesh Pawar, a territorial manager with Vi; Raj Ravinath Arde, a Vi direct sales agent; and Gulabchand Kanhaiya Jaiswar, an Airtel direct sales agent. The group also included three other Vi sales agents – Mahesh Mahadev Kadam, Rohit Kanhaiyalal Yadav, Sagar Pandurang Thakur.

The probe, based on WhatsApp chat histories and technical support from mobile service providers, revealed that Pawar was the ringleader while Kadam, Yadav, Thakur, Arde and Jaiswar worked under him, illegally porting several Airtel numbers from other states to Vi in Mumbai, said police.

The group used two methods to generate new SIM cards, the police noted.

First, when customers approached sales agents/ shopkeepers for SIM cards, they would take fingerprints and biometric details twice or thrice citing some technical issue and generate more than one SIM card without even informing the customer.

Second, they would port numbers which were no longer in use, including spare numbers purchased in bulk by corporate customers. They did this by sharing the universal port code (UPC) issued by mobile service providers amongst themselves and or using the same code multiple times.

“The accused would activate SIM cards after porting them, recharge them for a minimum amount and sell them – mostly to cyber frauds for ₹5,000-10,000 per piece,” said the police officer quoted earlier. They also gave some SIM cards to shopkeepers to sell them to foreign tourists, the official added.

After tracking the WhatsApp groups for considerable time and interrogating the suspects, police arrested eight accused persons in mid-November, said a press note issued by Mumbai police. They included four Vi sales agents Kadam, Yadav, Thakur and Arde; Vi territorial manager Pawar; Airtel sales agent Jaiswar; and two mobile shop owners in Colaba – Usman Ali Mohammad Hejabur Rahman Sheikh and Abubakar Siddiqui Yusuf.

“The eight accused comprise just one group working with cyber frauds. Further investigation is on to trace others involved in such activities,” said Patil.