HIGHLIGHTS
- The police took action against eight persons who were engaged in the distribution of SIM cards.
- The con artists allegedly utilised 20,000 numbers to deceive victims.
- After re-verifying records, Vi blacklisted 7,948 SIM cards.
According to a senior official, the Madhya Pradesh cyber police have asked several telecom providers to block SIM cards issued on fraudulent identification certificates, and as a result, a prominent business has stopped approximately 8,000 SIM cards. Acting on the complaint of a person who was allegedly duped of Rs 1.75 lakh after being lured to buy a car through a Facebook advertisement in 2020, the cyber cell's Gwalior unit launched an investigation and discovered that the number used by fraudsters to defraud the complainant was issued on the identity of someone else.
"The number used by the fraudsters was issued by a telecom provider based on a separate person's identity certificate." Later, it was discovered that eight persons were involved in issuing SIM cards to those involved in the crime," Gwalior cyber zone Superintendent of Police Sudhir Agrawal said.
According to him, after a comprehensive investigation, the cyber police discovered that the fraudsters reportedly utilised 20,000 different numbers to deceive victims by contacting them using these SIM cards.
According to him, the police have initiated legal action against eight persons involved in the SIM card's issuance over the course of a year.
Following the probe, the cyber unit sent notifications to different telecom operators, including Vodafone-Idea, Airtel, and BSNL, requiring them to re-verify these numbers, he added.
Following a recent re-verification of the records, Vodafone-Idea banned 7,948 SIM cards, according to the official.
"This is perhaps the first time in the country that a telecom firm has banned so many lines to protect innocent people from being deceived by scammers," Agrawal alleged.
He stated that the other businesses are also re-verifying their records in order to prohibit such SIM cards.
