CBI cracks down on PoS generating 'Ghost SIM' for cybercriminals

Time of India

18-05-2025

New Delhi: In a major crackdown on digital arrest scams, the
CBI
has booked 39 point-of-sales (PoS) operators who sold 1,100 "
ghost SIM cards
" to cyber criminals operating from Southeast Asian countries to trap gullible individuals here, officials said Saturday. The PoS operators came under the scrutiny of the country's anti-cybercrime unit under the Home Ministry - I4C - which was keeping an eye on SIM cards belonging to Indian telecom operators active in Southeast Asian countries from where cyber criminals were allegedly operating.
Over 64,000 such SIM cards issued by 1,930 PoS fulfilled the criteria, which were further shortlisted on the basis of at least 10 complaints against these SIM cards that narrowed the PoS under suspicion to 84, they said.
During further analysis, it emerged that 39 PoS were currently active and allegedly engaged in creating "ghost SIM cards", which were sold to
cybercriminals
operating from Southeast Asian countries to target gullible Indians, they said.
The CBI investigation showed that SIM cards are issued on the basis of e-KYC. When a customer seeks a SIM, the point-of-sale person gets an E-KYC done and issues a SIM.
The alleged scamsters used to lie to the customers that their e-KYC had failed and they should try again.
The SIM generated for the first time was handed over to the customer while the second one - the "Ghost SIM" - was sold to cybercriminals without the genuine customers knowing that a SIM generated in their name was being used by cybercriminals, the officials said.
These ghost SIM cards were then used not only to deceive the victims, but also to create
mule bank accounts
to receive the money, which were later closed to avoid detection or reveal the money trail, they said.
Since these were Indian numbers but operating from Southeast Asian countries, the 'digital arrest' victim receiving the call got an impression that it was a local call originating from within India.
The CBI suspects that executives within the telecom operators may have played a role in activating these ghost SIM cards, and the agency will probe the matter during its investigation to unravel the criminal conspiracy, the officials said.
The agency has so far arrested more than five individuals connected to the racket and conducted widespread searches across India last week.
The searches were conducted as part of the ongoing 'Operation Chakra V', which is aimed at curbing cybercrimes and digital arrest-related frauds, they said.
The raids were carried out on the premises of various point-of-sale agents of telecom operators in Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, a CBI spokesperson said.