Hyderabad police nab 66 ghost SIM suppliers across 13 states; Rs 101 crore looted in 76 cases

HYDERABAD: In a major operation spanning 13 states, police officials from Hyderabad have arrested 66 persons involved in supplying ghost SIM cards to cybercriminals. Officials said the arrests were made as part of the ongoing Operation Octopus and that the SIMs were used in 76 fraud cases in which about Rs 101 crore were looted.

The arrests were made across Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha along with Telangana. Officials told TOI that they cracked down on the suppliers after an analysis of various cybercrime cases revealed that 1,164 SIMs used in the offences had been issued illegally.

Hyderabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar said 544 SIMs were seized during the operation. As many as 432 SIMs were about to be dispatched to cybercriminals. Among the 66 persons nabbed, 44 were those in whose names ghost SIMs had been bought, 20 were manning temporary kiosks from where the SIMs had been bought and two were middlemen with connections to criminals.

Sajjanar said the accused obtained the SIMs using different methods. "When a genuine customer came to the kiosk, the agents activated additional SIMs without their knowledge using eKYC. These were dispatched to cybercriminals. The kiosk agents also offered free activation to those who were not digitally literate and later diverted SIMs to criminals for use in overseas fraud.'' The accused also lured people to surrender their SIMs for money.

"Hyderabad police will convene a meeting of Telecom Service Providers (TSP). Just as banks were called upon to find innovative solutions to putting the brakes on mule account, TSPs will now be expected to work closely with us to come up with stringent protocols to curb the ghost SIMs," a senior police officer said.

Mandatory real-time verification during SIM activation, faster deactivation of SIMs flagged in cybercrime cases, blacklisting of errant agents and distributors from all telecom networks, technology-driven anomaly detection for bulk SIM issuance patterns will be on the agenda during the meeting.

What 3 phases of Operation Octopus have accrued

• Octopus 1.0 : Mule Account holders were identified and arrested
• Octopus 2.0 : Bankers were arrested
• Octopus 3.0 : Focused on illegal issuing of SIM cards.

How Operation Octopus is panning out

• Executives of 12 public and private sector banks told to start real-time data sharing to flag mule accounts.
• Standardised SOP to freeze accounts linked to cybercrime across states proposed
• KYC audits at branch level recommended
• Permanent blacklisting of complicit bank officials sought
• Secretary of the department of financial services has issued order to banks to mandatorily mule hunter software