Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Bhopal Cyber Crime Branch has blocked 2,479 IMEI numbers (International Mobile Equipment Identity) within the last year, in addition to deactivating over 363 SIM cards linked to fraudulent activities such as digital arrest scams, crypto cons, fake jobs, and online trading frauds.
Police officials said the IMEI blocking initiative targeted stolen phones and devices misused by cyber criminals for identity theft, impersonation scams, and large-scale deception operations.
These actions are believed to have disrupted several organised syndicates operating across Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and the Delhi-NCR region.
Once the IMEI is blocked, the mobile phone of the cyber conmen becomes useless as they can neither make calls nor use the internet through the equipment.
Simultaneously, the Cyber Crime Branch secured the blocking of more than 363 SIM cards found to be active in fraudulent calls and messages. Most of these SIMs were activated using forged Aadhaar and identity documents, and subsequently sold to cyber fraud networks through encrypted Telegram channels. Once flagged, the corresponding service providers were enlisted to deactivate them within three to five days.
Additional DCP (Crime Branch) Shailendra Singh Chauhan highlighted that the dual crackdown aimed not only to curb immediate fraud attempts but also to dismantle the enabling infrastructure, especially mule accounts and pre-activated SIMs frequently leveraged by cyber scammers.
