Bhubaneswar: Misuse of fake/pre-activated SIMs has become a serious issue having a bearing even on national security apart from affecting individuals.
On this issue, a meeting was convened by Crime Branch on May 17 here. Officials of the Department of Telecommunication and Telecom Service Providers (TSP) viz. BSNL, Airtel, Jio and Voda-Idea (VIL) attended the meeting.
Arun Bothra, ADG, CID-CB, Shefeen Ahamed K, IGP CID-CB and officers from Cyber Crime Unit were also present in the meeting.
Consequent upon the seizure of a large number of activated SIMs at different places in Odisha viz. seizure of about 20,000 SIMs along with cash of Rs 14 lakh in May 2022, a SIM box machine with a large number of SIMs at Baripada in September 2022 and another seizure of 17000 SIMs at Bhubaneswar, it has become a matter of grave concern for the enforcement agencies to contain such activities as it endangers even the national security.
The Department of Telecommunication (DOT) had conducted verification of SIMs using ASTR software and has hinted that some SIMs with fake addresses are still active.
During the meeting, Crime Branch suggested the following points:
- For Tele verification, a call should be made to the Phone No. to which is Aadhaar linked.
- Dealers having permanent shops should only be allowed to sell SIMs.
- The Telecom Service Providers (TSP) should devise a mechanism for the customers to complain about the Fake SIM and to get it deactivated.
- Those Point Of Sales (POS) who are caught violating the SOP of SIM activation should be blacklisted.
- TSPs should create awareness among the customers regarding the TAFCOP tool that enables the customers to verify and ascertain as to how many any SIMs are in use in their name with/without their knowledge.
- TSPs should have an internal surveillance mechanism over those activated SIMs lying dormant continuously but are being recharged regularly.
In the meeting, Arun Bothra, Additional DG of Police, Crime Branch told that henceforth in cases involving bulk seizure of such SIMs, the role of all concerned officials of the Telecom Service Provider would also be brought under the purview of the investigation for conspiring to issue such SIMs and suitable legal action shall be initiated against them along with others in the supply chain.
He requested TSPs to strengthen their internal vigilance mechanism and conduct regular checks and verification and deactivate such SIMs which are prone to be misused.
He also requested Department of Telecom (DoT) officials to regularly provide inputs to the Police Department against such fraudulent activities.
