The State Cyber Crime Police have arrested three individuals involved in an international SIM box network scam operating across multiple Indian states.
The arrested suspects are:
Tarikh Alam (19) from Nilothi, New Delhi
Lokesh Kumar (33)
Ashok Kumar (40)
Raids conducted at two locations in Narela and one in Nilothi, New Delhi led to the seizure of 16 SIM boxes from Narela and 8 from Nilothi.
Using tower dump analysis and call detail records, investigators confirmed these devices were part of a large-scale digital call fraud run by an international cyber syndicate.
This recent arrest follows a coordinated crackdown in September 2025 across Tamil Nadu, where police seized 14 high-capacity Quectel SIM boxes in Chennai and arrested six suspects. Additional devices were recovered, while some were destroyed in Ramanathapuram to evade detection.
Investigations revealed that the network supplied eight SIM boxes to Delhi and operated actively in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bihar. Several teams, led by ADGP Cyber Crime Sandeep Mittal, conducted simultaneous raids.
A SIM box reroutes international calls as local calls using hundreds of low-cost or forged identity SIM cards. This exploits the difference between international and local call rates—callers are charged high international rates, while telecom operators receive only low local charges, leading to significant revenue loss.
With the latest arrests in New Delhi, the Tamil Nadu cybercrime wing has dismantled 44 SIM boxes linked to this international scam in the past two months.
