Most fake SIMs sold in Bengal and Kolkata telecom circles
A recent report compiled by the Digital Intelligence Unit of the Department of Telecommunications says that, among all telecom circles, the highest number fake SIM cards were sold in the Bengal circle while among city-based telecom circles, it was Kolkata.
The state of Bengal is home to the highest number of fake SIM cards in India, according to data collected by the Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) of the Union government’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT), as reported by The Times of India (TOI).
The TOI report says that while the highest number of fake SIM cards detected till August 2022 in the entire country were from the Bengal telecom circle (which excludes Kolkata but includes Sikkim and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands), numbering over 6.8 lakh, among the city-based telecom circles too, the crown of thorns belonged to Bengal—to the Kolkata circle, where 1,87,881 such SIMs were detected.
The Bengal circle also topped the list of points of sale (POS) issuing these fake SIMs, with 10,915 operators detected. The districts of Murshidabad, East Medinipur and North Dinajpur had the highest number of POSs.
Among all the telecom circles, as well as among the non-city-based circles, the second and third spots for fake SIMs sold belonged to Madhya Pradesh (3,37,084) and Gujarat (2,93,239).
Among the city-based telecom circles, Mumbai was second, though a distant one, with 32,447 fake SIMs detected till August 2022.
According to the report, the full list of fraudulent SIM numbers and POSs had been submitted to the respective state police forces for necessary action.
Arup Das, director, West Bengal Licensed Service Area (WBLSA) of the DoT, explained to TOI that while an Indian citizen can have a maximum of nine SIMs and those from Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast can have six, no subscriber is supposed to morph a photograph to get another SIM.
The DoT verified the fake sims using a proprietary software called Telecom Analytics for Fraud Management and Consumer Protection (TAFCOP) and a high-end pixel-grade facial recognition software called ASTR, said Das.
