The Department of Telecom (DoT) has instructed mobile phone providers like Reliance, Jio phone, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea Limited to block more than 28,000 mobile phones.
Union Home Ministry and Police have conducted enquiries and found that 28,200 handsets were involved in cyber crimes. DoT has found that 20 lakhs have been used. Fifty-two companies have been blacklisted for transmitting fake SMS.
The Union Government launched the ‘Chakshu Portal’ to efficiently monitor cyber activities. Since then, 348 mobile handsets have been blocked, 10,834 numbers have been sent for re-examination, and DoT has cancelled 1.66 crores of mobile connections until April 30 this year.
Terror outfits exploit modern sophisticated communication methods. Government officials believe that Pakistani infiltrators use (VoIP) Voice on the Internet Protocol to infiltrate Bharat and reactivate their cadre in Kashmir. VoIP is phone service over the Internet. Government officials believe that this is a well-established fact. Encrypted mobile communications are routed through VoIP. Such VoIP communications are distributed through various social media applications to coordinate and plot terror activities.
Immediately after revoking Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, the Government suspended mobile connectivity and broadband in Jammu & Kashmir to avoid the external aid the terrorists get. After some time, they were revived.
Recently, Malappuram (Kerala) Cyber Crime Police arrested Hubli (Karnataka) native Abdul Roshan for the alleged involvement in cheating a person in Malappuram district, Kerala and extorting Rs 1.08 cr from him. It is said to be a blatant example of online trading scams. Abdul Roshan was taken into custody in Madikeri, Karnataka. According to the Police, Abdul Roshan distributes SIM cards to fraudulent groups. The victim suffered heavy loss by clicking a share market website link, which was advertised on Facebook. Later on, the frauds contacted him, posing as customer care representatives of a share market site. They managed to convince him, and he made deposits into various accounts. But, ultimately, he did not get any revenues, and did not get the deposits back either.
After nabbing Abdul Roshan, the Police seized about 40,000 SIMs and 180 mobile phones from him. Roshan’s men are reported to be mobile phone shop owners. Reports suggest that they illicitly used customers’ fingerprints to activate counterfeit SIM cards; they supplied them to Abdul Roshan at a rate of Rs 50 per card. Then, these SIM cards were distributed to fraudsters, obviously for undesirable activities.
The fraudulent SIM card business has been part and parcel of terrorist and anti-national activities. Some time back, when some terrorists were arrested, it was found that the SIMs they used were obtained using copies of the ID cards of innocent people. Now, the latest move of DoT is in the right direction. This is a step to curb anti-national terrorist activities.
