5,300 of 36,000 Indian SIMs active in Cambodia linked to Rs 100 crore cyber fraud: ED

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has identified 36,000 active Indian SIM cards being operated from Cambodia, of which nearly 5,300 are linked to cyber fraud cases. The fraud cases involve Rs 100 crore across India, officials said.The large-scale fraud came to light after the ED launched an investigation based on an FIR registered by the Cyber Police Station, DCP (Crime), Jodhpur, against certain Point of Sale (POS) vendors for alleged misuse of SIM cards, news agency ANI reported.The probe revealed that Indian mobile numbers were fraudulently activated by POS vendors and supplied to Malaysian nationals. It was then disclosed that those nationals then operated the SIMs from Cambodia to carry out cyber frauds targeting victims in India.As per the ED investigation, “Thousands of Indian mobile numbers were fraudulently activated in India by the SIM vendors, which were used from Cambodia for committing cyber fraud at various states of India by making WhatsApp calls.”“Analysis of around 2.3 lakh numbers showed that about 36,000 SIM cards were active in Cambodia, out of which nearly 5,300 were involved in committing cyber fraud cases across India to the tune of hundreds of crores,” the federal agency said in a statement.The ED informed that several vendors targeted less educated and gullible people from different states under the pretext of SIM porting or issuance of new connections, ANI reported.Investigation revealed that the accused, Rahul Kumar Jha, Mohammad Sharif and Sandeep Bhatt, allegedly, in connivance with other SIM vendors including Prakash Bheel, Ramavatar Rathi, Hareesh Malakar and Hemant Panwar, also activated additional SIM cards.The agency further said, “The SIM vendors have POS ID of the telecom operators, namely, Airtel, Jio, and Vi for issuance and activation of SIM cards.”As part of the ongoing case, the ED’s Jaipur zonal office conducted searches on Friday at seven locations in Kishangarh in Ajmer and Jodhpur, Nagpur, and Ludhiana under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.During the search operations, the ED identified 30 bank accounts and seized several incriminating documents and materials, along with details of various movable and immovable properties linked to the accused.(With agency inputs)