Hundreds of fake SIMs activated with 1 face; 2 held

Bhopal: Two persons were arrested by cops on Tuesday for allegedly activating hundreds of fake SIM cards using a single person's facial identity and forging documents.Police suspect the SIMs may have been used in cyber crimes and are probing further links.According to Additional DCP (Crime Branch) Shailendra Singh Chouhan, the accused, identified as Devendra Yadav, a resident of Barkhedi in Jahangirabad, and Saif Qureshi, a resident of Islamapura, were working as Point of Sale (POS) agents. They allegedly issued multiple SIM cards using fake identities while using the same photograph for verification.Additional DCP Chouhan said the accused activated around 250 SIM cards by misusing customers' identity documents, including Aadhaar cards and driving licences, which were available with them from previous transactions. They committed the fraud when the SIM cards were issued using photo identity documents. When the eKYC on basis of Aadhar Cards were implemented, the SIMs were allotted to somebody else or were disconnected. The accused sold the fake cards for Rs 1000 to Rs 2000. The matter came to light during verification under Operation FACE (Facial Authentication & Compliance Enforcement), initiated by the state cyber police headquarters based on inputs from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The DoT earlier used an AI-based Facial Recognition Tool (ASTR) to identify suspicious SIM activations where multiple numbers were linked to a single face. Police said the accused allegedly used incentives offered by telecom companies to boost SIM sales, They used fake details to activate SIMs and sold them, cops said.