Overview
- Hyderabad City Police led a seven-day, multi-state sweep that resulted in 66 arrests in a nationwide Ghost SIM probe announced on Wednesday.
- Investigators identified 1,194 fraudulent SIMs linked to cases and seized 544 SIM cards in Hyderabad, including 432 sealed and 112 active units.
- Police say point-of-sale agents and telecom promoters illegally activated extra SIMs using customers’ biometric eKYC or MNP checks, then converted some to eSIMs and sent numbers abroad for use in scams.
- Authorities plan senior-level meetings with Airtel, Jio and Vodafone Idea and will approach the Department of Telecommunications and TRAI to tighten KYC, vet point-of-sale agents and speed deactivation of flagged numbers.
- Officials warned the public to check how many connections are active in their name and report fraud, noting that ghost SIMs let criminals create fake profiles for sextortion, impersonation and other frauds and that further crackdowns are under way.