Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Dealing a severe blow to cyber criminals operating from different parts of the country, the Bhopal Cyber Crime Branch got over 363 SIM cards blocked within a year.
Cyber criminals used these cards for digital arrests and other frauds. Cyber Crime Branch officials said that these SIM cards were usually acquired through forged documents. They said requests were forwarded to the service providers concerned to deactivate them.
To note, cyber conmen have called and duped people in Bhopal on different pretexts such as online trading, crypto scams and jobs, even going in for ‘digital arrests’.
Additional DCP (crime) Shailendra Singh Chauhan said that not only were the mule bank account holders used in cyber frauds traced but mobile numbers used for fraud calls were also under regular surveillance. The mobile numbers in the complaints received from people regarding fraudulent calls were reported to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP). After this, the service provider concerned blocked such numbers within three to five days.
Officials said that the SIM cards used for cyber frauds were found active in different parts of the country. However, they were usually concentrated in Uttar Pradesh, NCR region and Jharkhand.
Officials said that agents of cyber fraudsters used forged Aadhar cards and other identification documents to activate SIM cards. Moreover, local gangs also activated SIM cards using documents taken from individuals on different pretexts. Such SIM cards were sold to cyber fraudsters through telegram channels.
The additional DCP said people should report such calls to helpline 1903. Moreover, in a bid to control cyber crimes, service providers should also take cognizance and identify mobile numbers repeatedly used for making fraud and spam calls to people and block them.
