AP CID Busts International Cybercrime Worth Rs 20 Crore, Arrests 14

Vijayawada: AP CID has busted an international cybercrime network in coordination with the Telecom department, leading to cheating of Rs 20 crore in Andhra Pradesh alone. Of the 20 accused, the CID has arrested 14, including two foreign operators.

AP CID (Cybercrimes) SP Adhiraj Singh Rana and his deputy, Dr. B. Ravikiran addressed mediapersons at Mangalagiri on Friday, revealing the names of the two foreign operators as Ho Hu Duy and Tuan Anhpham, who are Vietnam nationals. The remaining arrested are local operators.

The cyber racket involved converting foreign calls into local calls using a SIM box. The criminals are mainly from Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia. They used SIP softphones operating on laptops to route internet-based VoIP calls to foreign VoIP / SIP servers. These calls reached India through FTTH broadband connection installed at the residences of local operators in India.

The SIM box connected to broadband converted international calls into local GSM calls and routed them through multiple Indian SIM cards installed in the SIM box to various mobile network towers. As a result, the call received by the victim appeared to be from a local Indian mobile number. Foreign criminals used Telegram to communicate and give instructions to local operators. WhatsApp, Telegram and other applications had been used to obtain OTPs received during SIM activation to conceal real identities using fake profiles.

The racket got busted when the CHAKSHU module of Sanchar Sathi portal of Department of Telecommunications (DoT reported suspicious calling activity in the Pedagantyada-Gajuwaka area of Visakhapatnam city. Upon verification, DoT confirmed illegal SIM Box operations.

Following this, police registered a case and started investigations. Based on crucial inputs provided by the Customs department and DoT, police conducted searches in Visakhapatnam (AP), Hyderabad (Telangana), Rourkela (Odisha), Nalanda (Bihar), Arambol (Goa) and Kolkata (West Bengal). These searches resulted in arrest of the Vietnamese and local POS agents.

Police have seized huge quantities of SIM cards, SIM boxes, routers and mobile phones from the accused. Verification of the seized SIM cards revealed that many complaints had been registered in AP alone, resulting in a total loss of about Rs 20 crore in the state.

Authorities seized 14 SIM Boxes, 22 mobile phones, one laptop, eight routers, seven cameras, three UPS, one investor with a battery, a monitor, 1,496 SIM cards and seven SIM card aggregators.