SIM Box Seized In Bhubaneswar; Police Suspect International Cyber Fraud Network
What are you doing? In a major breakthrough against organized cybercrime, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police seized an illegal SIM box in Bhubaneswar on Monday, intensifying its crackdown on sophisticated telecom-based fraud networks operating from the Odisha capital.
The device was seized during a targeted raid by a special team under the jurisdiction of Chandrasekharpur Police Station. Acting on specific intelligence inputs, police zeroed in on a location where the SIM box was allegedly being used to route spoofed calls.
According to senior officials, the defendants were using the device to convert international Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls into local calls, primarily to Middle Eastern countries. This technique allows cybercriminals to disguise the true origin of calls, making them appear to be domestic, thus increasing the likelihood of deceiving unsuspecting victims.
Often used in organized cyber fraud operations, SIM boxes bypass standard telecommunications gateways by routing international calls through multiple local SIM cards. The technology not only masks the identities of callers, but also facilitates financial frauds while causing significant revenue losses to telecom operators.
Police sources announced that this was the second seizure in recent days. Earlier, a similar device was seized under the jurisdiction of Laxmisagar Police Station. Preliminary investigations in this case had traced operational links to Ranchi, suggesting an inter-state network.
Investigators now suspect the racketeering may have been part of a larger, well-coordinated organization with possible international connections. Some digital footprints point to connections extending beyond India, including potential links with China, but these aspects are still being verified, officials said.
2 people were detained in connection with the raid. Forensic examination of the seized equipment and extraction of technical data are currently ongoing. Police were also interrogating the defendants to determine the scale of the operations, financial traces and the identities of other members involved in the network.
As the investigation deepened, authorities did not rule out the possibility of additional arrests.
