Lucknow: Lucknow Police crime branch has busted an e-SIM activation racket that allegedly supplied Indian mobile numbers to foreign cyber criminals involved in digital arrest scams. Two accused have been arrested, while authorities have frozen ₹35 lakh traced to a ₹70-lakh fraud committed against the wife of a retired airport director.The racket came to light during the investigation of the high-value cyber fraud case being probed by the cybercrime police station.According to additional DCP (crime) Kiran Yadav, investigators tracked the mobile number used to make the initial fraudulent call and found that the SIM card had been issued through a point of sale (PoS) outlet in Lucknow.“During verification, police found that the SIM was registered in the name of an economically weak man who had no knowledge that a number activated using his credentials was allegedly being used by international cyber fraudsters,” she said.The probe led officers to Sumit Kumar Rawat, an authorised SIM PoS agent.“During questioning, investigators found that he had allegedly teamed up with Ishu Yadav, who supplied nearly 100 blank SIM cards for illegal activation,” Yadav added.Police said Sumit used a deceptive method to obtain duplicate e-KYC authentication from customers visiting his outlet for new SIM cards or mobile number portability.Claiming that the system had encountered technical issues, he allegedly persuaded customers to complete the e-KYC process twice. While one SIM was issued to the customer, the same Aadhaar-based credentials were allegedly used to activate another SIM without the customer’s knowledge.The illegally activated SIMs were then converted into e-SIMs and their QR codes generated, enabling remote activation from any location.Investigators said Sumit sold these e-SIM profiles to Praveen Srivastava alias Amit, identified as the mastermind of the operation, for ₹325 each. Praveen allegedly marketed the e-SIMs through Telegram and sold them to foreign cyber criminals, primarily China-based syndicates, for about 50 USDT apiece. Payments were routed through the BYBIT crypto exchange using peer-to-peer transactions.Police found 144 USDT in Praveen’s crypto wallet during the investigation.Officials said the illegally activated Indian e-SIMs were being extensively used in transnational cyber frauds, including digital arrest scams targeting people across the country.
