5 held for procuring SIM cards on fake IDs, selling it sham call centres, spammers

Five men have been arrested for allegedly procuring SIM cards on fake IDs and selling them to unauthorized call centres, spammers and those involved in cyber-crime fraud, police said on Friday.

The accused have been identified as Usman Goni (26), a resident of Assam, Virender Singh (24), Nishant Bansal (24), Gagan Chopra (22) and Prateek Sharma (21), all residents of Delhi, they said.

Around 1.30 pm on August 5, after getting a tip-off about a man who had in his possession such SIM cards, the police conducted a raid and apprehended Virender Singh from near the Income Tax Colony in Pitampura, a senior police officer said.

A total of 710 SIM cards were recovered from his possession.

Singh revealed that he worked at a mobile shop in Fatehabad in Haryana and sold SIM cards procured on fake IDs in Delhi for the past one year along with his accomplices, police said.

He used to get a pre-activated SIM cards brought on fake IDs from Assam through a courier with the help of one of his accomplices Goni.

He then used to double their prices and sell the cards to unauthorised call centres, spammers and those involved in cyber-crime frauds through Prateek and Gagan in Delhi and Haryana, the officer said.

Singh has sold around 50,000 such SIM cards, police said.

Before selling the SIM cards, Singh used to purchase grocery items online by using the offers available for first time users and got items on discount. Later, he used to sell these items to the local departmental stores.

"Based on his disclosure, Nishant Bansal, Prateek and Gagan were nabbed. Thereafter, police arrested Goni, the supplier, from Assam," Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Vijayanta Arya said.

Goni hired youngsters of his village in Assam to arrange IDs. Then, they purchased the SIM cards from nearby dealers. Goni used to collect those SIM cards and later sell to Singh in bulk, the DCP said.

Singh used to purchase SIM card at Rs 50 per SIM from Goni and sell them at Rs 100 per SIM through Nishant Bansal, Prateek and Gagan, police added. 

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