Mobile SIMs secured through fake documents a new headache for security agencies: Official

Sources from the state police said that such pre-activated SIM cards are secured through two avenues. The first process is where a cross-border criminal procure these SIM cards by furnishing forged identity documents in the name of any third person who does not existing in reality

Kolkata: Mobile SIM cards secured through forged Indian identity documents by the cross-border criminals active along India’s international borders with Bangladesh, especially in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, have become a new headache for the security agencies.

Sources from the state police said that such pre-activated SIM cards are secured through two avenues. The first process is where a cross-border criminal procure these SIM cards by furnishing forged identity documents in the name of any third person who does not existing in reality.

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The second avenue is even more alarming. In this case, the pre-activated SIM is registered in the name of any third person who really exists but is being used by any other person involved in nefarious activities.

In almost 99 per cent of such cases, sources from the state police said, the actual person in whose name the mobile SIM is registered is not even aware that someone else is using that SIM.

In most cases, sources added, such pre-activated SIMs are being sold to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants coming to India during their hiding period at the bordering villages before they are sourced with fake Indian identity documents.

The pre-activated mobile SIMs registered in the names of any existing third party are being sourced because of the involvement of some errant local mobile service dealers. When a genuine customer comes to purchase a SIM from them by furnishing photocopies of their genuine identity documents, such dealers retain an extra photocopy of such documents.

Later using that extra photocopies the dealer pre-active another SIM in the name of the original and then sells the same SIM at premium cost to any third person.

In such cases, such errant dealers also conduct a forgery while taking bio-metric imprints of the genuine consumers. Sources said that often genuine customers unaware that they should give their bio-metric imprints just once while purchasing a SIM, often allows the dealers to take such imprints more than once.

Those extra imprints are being used by the errant dealers to get multiple SIM cards in the same name.