Lucknow, July 30: The Lucknow police’s Crime Branch has revealed a significant case of cyber fraud involving e-SIM activation, leading to the arrest of two suspects. According to police reports, this gang provided Indian mobile numbers to foreign cybercriminals who extorted millions from victims under the guise of a “digital arrest.”
The fraud amounts to ₹70 lakhs, with police successfully freezing ₹35 lakhs of the funds. A press release from the Lucknow Police Commissionerate stated that this operation was part of a special campaign against cybercriminals, dubbed Operation ‘CYVIJERA,’ directed by Police Commissioner Tarun Gaba and supervised by senior officials.
Police disclosed that the victim was contacted by cybercriminals posing as an officer from ATS Pune. They instilled fear by alleging the victim’s involvement in money laundering and other serious crimes. The victim was reportedly kept in a state of ‘digital arrest’ for about seven days. During this time, they exerted continuous mental pressure through video calls and other digital means, coercing the victim to transfer funds from bank accounts and fixed deposits.
Under duress, the victim transferred a total of ₹70 lakhs across four different bank accounts. During the investigation, police managed to freeze ₹35 lakhs in three of these accounts. It was revealed that one of the arrested suspects, Sumit Kumar Rawat, was an authorized Jio SIM vendor (POS agent). He had connections with Eshu Yadav, who operated as an Airtel service provider. Allegations suggest that Eshu provided Sumit with approximately 100 blank Airtel SIM cards for illegal use.
According to police, Sumit misused the identification documents and e-KYC of customers seeking new SIMs or mobile number portability. While customers received a valid SIM, a second SIM was secretly activated using the same documents. Subsequently, activation QR codes were generated to convert these SIMs into e-SIMs.
The investigation also revealed that Sumit sold these activated e-SIMs to Praveen Srivastava for ₹325 each. Praveen then supplied them to foreign cybercriminals at a rate of around 50 USDT per e-SIM via Telegram. Payments were made through cryptocurrency.
Police reported that these Indian mobile numbers were primarily used by Cambodia-based cybercriminal gangs for various scams, including digital arrest scams, investment fraud, trading fraud, and OTP fraud. By using numbers issued in the names of Indian citizens, foreign criminals attempted to present themselves as active within India and evade law enforcement agencies.
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