7 Telecom Firm Staff Among 8 Arrested In Pre-Activated SIM Card Racket In Odisha

Cuttack: Another pre-activated SIM card racket has been unearthed with the arrest of eight persons, including seven employees of a private telecom company, by the Cyber Police in Odisha’s Cuttack.

According to sources, over 800 SIM cards have been seized from the accused persons. Around 300 of the SIM cards are pre-activated.

The seven private telecom company staff hail from Puri district and police have seized 16 mobile phones and Rs 2600 from their possession.

Cuttack DCP Pinak Mishra said that a case had been registered last year when a complainant alleged that one person had contacted him for renting a house. Later, the person had looted Rs 57,000 from his account through a cyber fraud.

A probe was conducted and it was found that a group from Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh was involved in the fraud. The team could not locate the prime accused as several technical aspects and investigation was pending.

Police found that the SIM used in the fraud was activated in Odisha and eight persons were apprehended from whom 800 SIM cards, including 300 pre-activated SIM cards, were seized. The accused had come in contact with a fraudster from outside the state and learnt the tricks to activate SIM cards by becoming vendors and misusing the identity of consumers, he said.

The gang members are in contact with professional fraudsters outside the state and used to hand over the pre-activated SIM cards to them.

It may be noted here that in March, 2022 the Cuttack Cyber Police had busted a racket involved in preparing and supplying pre-activated SIM cards to fraudsters. Two persons were arrested in this connection and around 250 pre-activated SIM cards of various service providers were seized from them.

Similarly, the Cyber cell of Odisha Crime Branch had in May last year arrested three persons for selling pre-activated SIM cards used by fraudsters to commit cyber crimes.