Mumbai: West Cyber Police on July 21 registered an FIR against a point-of-sale (POS) operator for allegedly selling several mule SIM cards, also called Ghost SIMs, which he procured in the names of several people using forged documents and sold to cyber fraudsters.The cyber team gathered information about a person identified as Prathamesh Chorat, who was known to be a POS operator and who allegedly managed to procure SIMs using forged documents of people, fraudulently procured, who would have submitted them for any other banking-related purposes.These SIMs were used by fraudsters for committing organised crimes, contacting citizens online, luring or threatening them, and gaining their trust.
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“Fraudsters exploit the telecom point-of-sale (POS) system in India through rogue retail agents and fake customer identities to obtain illicit SIM cards. These illegally activated mobile lines, often referred to as ‘Ghost SIMs,’ are subsequently used by cybercrime syndicates to bypass biometric security checkpoints, orchestrate financial scams, and establish untraceable bank accounts,” said a cyber police officer.In the complaint, West region cyber police constable VS Dighe said: “For daily cybercrime operations, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs has provided a centralised platform, the National Cybercrime Reporting Platform (NCRP), for registering cybercrime complaints. On this portal, various complainants from across the country contact Cyber Helpline number 1930 regarding their cyber fraud and register complaints. In these complaints, information about bank accounts used for fraud, mobile numbers, and held amounts is available.”Cyber fraudsters were committing organised crimes, contacting citizens online, luring or threatening them, and gaining their trust. “The extorted money is then transferred to various bank accounts. During the investigation, it was revealed that the accused are running an Organised Cyber Crime Syndicate by appointing field agents to collect original bank accounts and original SIM cards (original – bank accounts or SIM cards in another person’s name) from various parts of the country,” said Dighe in the FIR.After analysing the crimes registered and complaints on the NCCR portal, and reviewing the data received from I4C-NCCR, it was revealed that some SIM cards used in the said crimes and complaints were sold by specific POS agents in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. “Therefore, the following information about the POS agents who sold the said SIM cards was obtained from the respective mobile service provider companies. Upon searching the mentioned mobile number on the NCCR portal, it was found that complaints have been filed against them in West Bengal, Pune and Mumbai. From this, it was revealed that the aforementioned POS holder-operator is supplying mule SIM cards to cybercriminals,” said the cyber police.During the probe, the cyber police learnt that during the period Jan 2025 to May 2026, the suspected POS identified as Chorat obtained mule SIM cards in the names of various people and sold them to cyber fraudsters, thereby committing fraud. “They then transfer money from them by offering various deceptive inducements such as share market investment, digital arrest, task fraud and other similar schemes. During the investigation, it was revealed that the accused were running an Organised Cyber Crime Syndicate by appointing field agents to collect original bank accounts and original SIM cards (original – bank accounts or SIM cards in another person’s name) from various parts of the country,” said the officer.
