BHUBANESWAR: The Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch along with Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officials conducted verification at two to three call centres here over allegations of using unlicensed SIM boxes.
The Subscriber Identification Modules (SIM) box fraud is a setup where fraudsters team up with partners abroad to route international calls through the internet using voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and terminate those calls through a local phone number to make it appear as if the call is local. The fraudulent activity creates unnecessary high traffic for local calls, causing congestion that affects the network’s performance.
“Verification was conducted in the second week of March. While DoT will continue its routine verification, STF will provide assistance to verify if any unauthorised call centres are operating in the State,” STF SP Rahul PR said.
In 2017, STF had taken over the investigation of the seizure of SIM boxes in Ganjam district where four persons were arrested for their alleged links with underworld gangs. Police had arrested four persons, including two computer engineers, in Berhampur for illegally operating SIM boxes which were being used by gangsters to divert ISD/STD calls by using fake SIMs.
The arrest was made on the basis of inputs of the Crime Branch of Mumbai Police which was probing a case involving demand of `two crore ransom from a Mumbai-based businessman. The ransom was allegedly demanded by one Suresh Pujari based in Hong Kong.