A majority of the 55,000-odd SIM cards, found to have been activated with fake identities in Tamil Nadu, were procured from other States. Investigators suspect that these mobile phone numbers could have been used to commit crimes or illegal activities like e-KYC update frauds, online scams and spams.
Acting on a specific input from the Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Home Affairs, the State police wrote to the respective telecom service providers and got all the 55,892 SIM cards that were procured with fake identities blocked, police sources said on Saturday.
While the Cyber Crime Wing has written to the Commissioners and Superintendents of Police of all cities and districts to take suitable action against the retailers who activated the SIM cards on the basis of fake proof of identities, steps are being taken to coordinate with the police of the other States to locate the retailers or agents who supplied the SIM cards activated with forged credentials, police sources said.
A team comprising senior officials from the Department of Telecommunications met the Additional Director-General of Police, Cyber Crime Wing, and shared details of the SIM card fraud and called for stringent action against the retailers. The scam was exposed after the Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition-powered solution was deployed by Central agencies to detect and weed out suspicious mobile phone numbers.
“...It is possible that people who have no proof of identity like refugees, migrant workers and foreign nationals might have used the SIM cards activated with fake identities,” a senior telecom official told The Hindu. More than 40,000 mobile phone numbers that were blocked were sourced from other States.
Probe to begin soon
Police and telecom officials would soon launch a massive investigation to analyse the call data records and Internet Protocol Data Record to look for anti-national or criminal activities, the official said. The list of numbers that were involved in crimes like online fraud, e-KYC scam and cyber stalking would be taken from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal to verify whether the blocked numbers were used for such illegal activities.
Telecom service provides were no longer permitted to activate SIM cards through Aadhaar-based e-KYC, and the earlier method of manually uploading proof of identity and address was being followed by all retailers and service providers. SIM cards activated with bogus documents was being supplied as a full-time business by some gangs operating out of Tamil Nadu. The official said an entire village in Haryana was involved in the racket and the local police had initiated action against them.
