Bengaluru cops on trail of 3 lakh SIMs without authentication

BENGALURU: The Bengaluru Police have discovered, to their shock and horror, that one does not need any copies of proof of identity and address to get a SIM card for a mobile phone connection. There are `helpful' mobile kiosks in the City who waive these musthaves for some extra money .

The police estimate that there could be about three lakh such SIM cards in use in the city.

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths had a shock from what they found out when they raided four shops in Hanumanthanagar, Srinagar and Raghavendra Block areas in Hanumanthanagar police limits recently. The small mobile shops had activated SIM cards for several customers by using the photocopies of proofs submitted by genuine customers.

The police, last week, arrested four persons in this connection. The raids yielded 2,310 SIM cards and 910 passport-size photographs. The investigations revealed that the accused were running this racket for the past one year.
DCP (Crime) R Ramesh estimated that there could be about 30 million such SIMs in use in India. This is one way criminals and terrorists get their SIMs. The regulations allow a customer to buy six SIM cards, and mobile shops offering SIM cards misuse this provision by going on duplicat ing the copies of proofs submitted by genuine buyers.

The police agree that many shopkeepers might do this to push the sales of SIM cards without knowing the consequences, which sometimes could be disastrous.

In January this year, the City police had booked Vodafone India and seven staff members for facilitating mobile connection with the help of copies of proofs provided by genuine buyers.

DCP (City Armed Reserve) Abhishek Goyal said there is no way a mo bile user could check the number of connections in use in his or her name But one could attempt to prevent fraud by mentioning on the copies of proof the purpose for which they are being submitted and to whom (service provider's name) and the date of submission.One could even sign across the photograph so that it canno be used again. The Police say the BSNL SIM cards are less prone to misuse as the officials are quite strin gent about following KYC (know your customer) norms.