Madhya Pradesh villagers biometric data misused to issue fake SIMs for national, international cyber frauds

BHOPAL: Villagers in Madhya Pradesh are increasingly falling prey to multi-layered rackets that misuse their identification details to source fake SIM cards, fueling inter-state and international cyber frauds run from countries like Cambodia and Thailand. Ongoing crackdown by the MP Police against rackets sourcing fake SIM cards to be used for cyber crimes across the country and abroad have stumbled upon an increasingly prevalent modus operandi of some SIM card point-of-sale (PoS) who are using identification details, particularly biometric data (especially thumb impression/fingerprint details) to issue SIM cards in bulk for use by the cyber fraud rackets. Our detailed investigations and analysis has revealed that in around 60% cases of fake SIM cards, the thumb impression/fingerprints of people aged particularly between 18 and 45 years, especially those from rural areas, have been used to supply SIM cards for use by cyber fraud rackets operating from Indian states, like Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan, UP and Delhi, besides international cyber crime syndicates operating from South East Asian nations, particularly Cambodia and Thailand, superintendent of police (SP-Cyber Cell Bhopal) Pranay Nagwanshi told the TNIE on Friday. As per sources connected with the ongoing crackdown against the PoS indulgent in issuing fake SIM cards to cyber fraudsters, Villagers going to such PoS to get new SIM cards are often asked deliberately to give their thumb impressions on the thumb impression machines on the pretext that their thumb impressions arent getting properly scanned for verification purposes. While the impression is used just once to issue a SIM card to the concerned villager, the same impression, which was taken multiple times by the SIM card PoS, is then used to generate more SIM cards, which are handed over subsequently to local facilitators who supply them to cyber fraud rackets. The other most prevalent modus operandi is that many SIM card PoS are actually using men in rural areas, who in the lure of quick money are bringing their relatives and friends to the such PoS in the name of getting them registered for benefits under various government schemes and using their identification details, including fingerprints to generate fake SIM cards for cyber fraud syndicates. According to Nagwanshi, everyone who is giving fingerprint/thumb impressions on devices at SIM cards PoS, should be alert and question why the staff at the PoS is asking for the thumb impression/fingerprint scanning multiple times, to prevent their genuine ID details from being used to generate SIM cards for use by cyber fraudsters, including those indulging in Digital Arrests. These alarming revelations have been made during the ongoing Operation FAST (Forged-Activated-SIM-Termination) of the MP Police, which is being carried out across the state jointly by the state polices cyber cell and district police forces. The basis of Operation FAST is the detailed info provided to the MP Police by the Ministry of Home Affairs I4C (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre). As per the data, as many as 6200 complaints from various states on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal were related to 7500 fake SIM cards issued by 3824 PoS across MP. Under the first phase of the Operation, which began 15 days back, the police have registered 50 FIRs against 94 SIM Card PoS and agents in 20 districts and 44 people have been arrested so far. As many as 100 fake SIM cards and seven thumb impression machines have also been seized. Similar operations are underway in the 35 remaining districts of the state based on the information given by the I4C. Were also working on regularly carrying out similar operations based on cyber fraud complaints being made directly to us in the state about mobile phone numbers being frequently used by cyber thugs, Nagwanshi added. In the next phase, we will probe the backward and forwards linkages of these notorious SIM card PoS, including the possibility of the cellular service providers staffs collusion with the tainted PoS and the facilitators getting bulk SIM cards for cyber fraud rackets from such point-of-sale contacts, he maintained. The hotspot districts so far The ongoing Operation FAST which, has so far covered 20 of the 55 districts in the state, has revealed that five districts, including Sidhi, Chhatarpur, Datia, Dindori and Shivpuri, have emerged as the prime hotspots of such SIM Card PoS, which are supplying fake SIM cards to cyber fraudsters. In each of these districts, more than 100 such SIM cards have been issued by the dubious PoS. Sidhi, which is located in the Vindhya region and is neighboured by Eastern UP, has emerged as the biggest such hotspot, with around 1000 such SIM cards having been issued by the dubious SIM Card PoS there, Nagwanshi said. This latest revelation means that the Vindhya region (which is neighboured by UP and Chhattisgarh both) is not just a fertile land of mule accounts (bank accounts used by criminals to receive, transfer or launder illegal money with or without the knowledge/complicity of the actual account holders), but also a hub for supply of fake SIM cards to cyber fraud rackets. In the past, there have been multiple cases of suspected hawala money, money meant for suspected terrorist and spying activities and money generated from cyber fraud, having been parked in mule accounts of people living in various parts of MPs Vindhya region, particularly Satna, Rewa, Maihar, Katni and Umaria districts. The second set of fake SIM cards hotspot districts, includes Gwalior, Indore, Damoh, Morena and Jabalpur districts.