Re-sale of SIM cards, fodder for crime

As per the rule, the company concerned should visit the address mentioned in the customers' application form for verification. But the companies many a time do not do this to reduce their cost

A reputed businessman B Sriman lost his phone at Gymkhana recently. He filed an FIR at the nearby police station. Getting his mobile back became a distant dream for him. He wanted a duplicate SIM immediately to keep his business going. He was shocked when he was told by the customer care official that the identity proof given for his SIM belonged to Nellore district.

Sriman explained and requested the authorities, but all in vain. He showed all the incoming and outgoing calls for proof to the officials concerned to the customer care but they were reluctant to listen to him.

M Raju, cluster head of Uninor says that they encounter many such cases each passing day. “We go by identity proofs. We do not help if the identity proof doesn’t match. Not only Uninor, all are facing these kind of problems.
TRAI is levying fines upto 50k on such fraudulent cases. One person was closely related to the Chief Minister but we did not compromise. How do we identity the person?”

Walk up to a telecom reseller. With just a few bucks, one can have a SIM card of any telecom service provider. And terror-prone Hyderabad is no exception. Identity is no big obstacle.

Pre-registered SIM cards are still being hawked and sold across the country, thus endangering those persons whose vital information are in such SIM memory. As it has been demonstrated clearly, the cell phone has not only revolutionised communication in our country, it has also increasingly becoming a tool for committing all types of crimes, ranging from kidnapping, money laundering to other telecommunication frauds, including inciting violence.
Pre-registered SIM card, often referred to as “active SIM card” is a boon to criminals because they can commit crimes, hiding under its anonymity or more appropriate, with someone else’s identity. "Some of the SIM cards are activated after submitting fake documents. Criminals would take original application forms of customers from the retailers whom they already know. Then he would take photocopies of the original documents. For this, retailer is paid Rs 3 by the criminal. The accused would take 100 photocopies of each original application before returning them to the retailer. On these photocopies, he would paste photograph of other persons and make fake signatures," said Jeetendra, legal team of Aircel.

“A few months back CCS Hyderabad caught a criminal by name Mujaheed and Raju. They ran a big racket of SIM cards. Raju would approach a dealer, who may be hand-in-glove with the accused, saying that he had hundreds of customers and he wanted SIM cards for them. The dealer would handover the SIM cards after Raju submitted fake documents. Behind each SIM card usage, Raju was paid Rs 80 as commission by the dealer," said ACP Srinivas. This way, the dealer also achieved his target of selling maximum SIM cards and got recognition from his company.

"As per rule, a SIM card should be used for at least five minutes in three months. So Raju would start recharging it and talk for five minutes. Later, he would use the portability facility," added ACP Srinivas. Portability was another trick used by Mujaheed and Raju.

"For example, if he had used Vodafone SIM card for sometime, he would then approach Airtel dealer saying that he has hundreds of customers who want to switch over to Airtel service. This way Airtel also got customers who switched over to its service from other company. For this also, Raju was paid commission of Rs 80 for each SIM card," he said, adding "This way, he earned Rs 4-5 lakh a month."

Amjad Khan, secretary of mobile Dealers Welfare Association said "As per rule, the company concerned should visit the address mentioned in the customers' application form for verification. But the companies many a times do not do this to reduce their cost."