Bhubaneswar: In order to prevent rising cyber crimes through fake SIM cards, Odisha Crime Branch has issued a set of guidelines for the issuance of SIM cards of various telecom operators to the customers.
The new guidelines have been issued after a meeting of senior Crime Branch officials, telecome operators headed by Crime Branch ADG Arun Bothra.
During the meeting Crime Branch has suggested the following points:
- For Tele verification, call should be made to the Phone No. to which is Aadhaar linked.
- Dealers having permanent shops should only be allowed to sell SIMs.
- The Telecom Service Providers (TSP) should devise a mechanism for the customers to complain about the Fake SIM and to get it deactivated.
- Those Point Of Sales (POS) who are caught violating the SOP of SIM activation should be black listed.
- TSPs should create awareness among the customers regarding TAFCOP tool that enables the customers to verify and ascertain as to how many any SIMs are in use in their name with/without their knowledge.
- TSPs should have internal surveillance mechanism over those activated SIMs lying dormant continuously but are being recharged regularly.
The Crime Branch said Telecom Service Provider would also be brought under the purview of the investigation in cases of bulk seizure of fake SIMs and suitable legal action shall be initiated against them along with others in the supply chain.
Bothra requested TSPs to strengthen their internal vigilance mechanism and conduct regular checks and verification and deactivate such SIMs which are prone to be misused. He also requested Department of Telecom (DoT) officials to regularly provide inputs to police department against such fraudulent activities.
