Malappuram: The Cyber Crime unit of Malappuram Police seized over 40,000 SIM cards, 180 mobile phones and six biometric readers from a Karnataka native understood to be a key accused in an online racket.
Abdul Roshan (46) was taken into custody Wednesday night from his house at Madikeri by a special team led by DCRB (District Crime Records Bureau) DySP V S Shaju. The investigation began on March 10 on the complaint of a Vengara native who lost Rs 1.08 crore in an online stock trading platform.
According to the police, the accused used the phones and SIM cards to receive OTP messages from unsuspecting victims of cyber fraud. Mobile shops part of Roshan's network collected the fingerprints of customers without their knowledge and used them to activate SIM cards. Roshan bought such SIM cards for Rs 50 each.
“It is one of the biggest haul of SIM cards in the state used for online fraudulent cases. The depth of this cybercrime is yet to be ascertained. We have received some tips from Roshan and the investigation is going on. There are many persons involved in the crime and they operate from different parts of the country, and even outside the country,” said S Sasidharan, Malappuram District Police Chief.
