Chandigarh: In a major crackdown against cybercrime and anti-national activities, Punjab Police has blocked over 1.8 lakh SIM cards that were activated using fake identities and forged documents.
In what highlights the gravity of the situation is that around 500 of these SIMs were procured under different names but using the same picture.
The fraudulent SIM cards were identified with the help of Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition Powered Solution for Telecom SIM Subscriber Verification (ASTR), a tool developed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)
DGP Gaurav Yadav said, “Strict action is being initiated against Point of Sales (PoS) distributors and agents and other persons involved in issuing SIM cards on fake IDs. In the last three days police has registered 52 FIRs under sections 420, 465, 467 and 471 of the IPC and have arrested 17 people.”
As many as 17 FIR’s have been registered in the state’s industrial epicentre Ludhiana. According to Ludhiana police one photo is used to issue 15-20 SIM cards in different names and addresses. Read More