Bhopal: Over 3.25 lakh sims sold through fake documents deactivated

Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): In a startling revelation, officials of state cyber crime cell stated that more than 3.25 lakh sim cards were issued to people on the basis of fake documents in past six months. The sim cards were used by cyber fraudsters for phishing, sextortion, UPI frauds, voice scams etc.

Senior cyber crime officials told Free Press that the sim cards were detected using special artificial intelligence (AI) software after which the information was passed on to Ministry of Telecommunications. The ministry swung into action and deactivated sim cards.

The Ministry directed the state cyber crime officials to register FIR against sim sellers and operators. According to sources, state has five crore mobile phone users most of whom use Jio Telecom network followed by Vodafone-Idea and Reliance Telecom Ltd.

Directives have been issued to register FIR against illegal sim sellers so that rate of cyber crimes can decline, sources added.

Software introduced 2 yrs back

Superintendent of police (cyber crime cell) Vaibhav Srivastava said AI software was introduced by the wing two years back. He however, refused to reveal the name of the software as its publicity would make fraudsters to change modus operandi to commit crime. He said multiple parameters were used in detecting fake sim cards, which include location of a person, his/her name, face and other details.