Gang With Links To China, Pak That Duped People Of Rs 100 Crore Busted

The IFSO (Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations) unit of the Delhi Police has busted an international cybercrime syndicate which used illegal SIM box networks and scammed people of over Rs 100 crore, officials said on Friday. The gang behind the racket had links spanning China, Nepal, Cambodia, Taiwan and Pakistan, and was allegedly involved in large-scale online frauds and so-called "digital arrest" scams.

IFSO Deputy Commissioner of Police Vineet Kumar said the syndicate used intimidation tactics to trap victims, falsely claiming their phone numbers were linked to terror funding or terror attacks.

Seven people have been arrested so far, including one Taiwanese national, while SIM boxes were recovered from Delhi, Mohali and Mumbai. A SIM box is a device that allows multiple physical SIMs or e-SIMs to be operated remotely and is commonly used in the initial stages of cyber fraud to mask the origin of calls.

According to the police, a team of around 25 officers carried out the coordinated operation with assistance from Indian agencies, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The investigation began with the arrest of one Shashi Prasad, who had rented a room to house the equipment. His interrogation led the police to Parminder Singh, and it emerged that he and Prasad were working as drivers and allegedly earned over Rs 1 lakh each. Further investigation led to Tsung Chen, a Taiwanese national who allegedly set up SIM box operations in Delhi and Mohali.

Police also revealed that the syndicate was being guided by a Pakistani handler. A SIM recovered from Mohali showed an IMEI linked to a Pakistani company, Fema. Additional arrests were made in Coimbatore, where another SIM box was found installed. Earlier, the Tamil Nadu Police had recovered similar devices from Nihal Vihar and Narela in Delhi, indicating the scale of the operation.

Apart from Prasad, Singh and Chen, four other people - Sarabjit Singh, Jaspreet Kaur, Dinesh and Abdul Salah, who holds a civil engineering diploma - have been arrested. Police said all the accused have some level of technical knowledge.

Authorities have seized 20,000 e-SIMs and 120 physical SIM cards so far.