Three men running an illegal SIM box setup in Chandrayangutta were arrested by the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB), in coordination with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Thursday.
The issue came to light when the DoT’s Hyderabad office received a complaint through a portal https://www.sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc/ about fraudulent impersonation calls. Acting on this lead, TGCSB teams examined call detail records, carried out field enquiries and gathered local intelligence to pinpoint the location of the illegal equipment. A joint raid was conducted at a residence in Chandrayangutta, where officers seized a SIM box and nearly 200 SIM cards allegedly acquired through fraudulent means.
The arrested men were identified as 28-year-old Hidayatullah of Hafeez Baba Nagar, 25-year-old Ahad Khan, who ran a SIM card selling point, and 24-year-old Shaik Shoaib, a SIM card salesman from Bandlaguda. Investigators said Hidayatullah, who had incurred heavy losses in the used car business and through failed online investments, was lured into the racket earlier this year.
According to the police, he came into contact with a woman known only as Venissa, based in Hong Kong, through social media. After initial exchanges on Snapchat, they began communicating over WhatsApp, where she persuaded him to install a SIM box at his home, promising lucrative returns. In February, a man posing as a courier executive delivered the device, and Venissa guided him through its installation over a video call.
Once the system was in place, Hidayatullah relied on Khan and Shoaib to supply large numbers of SIM cards. Both men were working as point-of-sale agents for telecom operators and allegedly exploited construction labourers in the Kollur area of Cyberabad. Police said the duo used Aadhaar credentials of these labourers, often without their knowledge, to obtain multiple additional SIM cards. Around 500 such cards have been supplied for the operation.
The SIM box was then used to route international calls via the Internet and convert them into local mobile calls, effectively masking the caller’s identity and origin. Officials explained that such technology is frequently used by cyber fraudsters to conduct impersonation scams, making it harder for victims to detect or trace the source of the calls.
Authorities suspect that the racket has wider links, given the volume of international traffic traced through the device. “A deep probe is on to unravel the real identity of Venissa, to know the total SIM cards supplied by the POS agents to Hidayatullah and to nab the other accused who are involved in this case,” TGCSB said.
A case has been registered under sections of the Information Technology Act, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Telecommunications Act. Police have launched a deeper probe to identify the total number of SIM cards supplied and to track other possible collaborators.
Warning the public, investigators urged people to be cautious when engaging with strangers over phone calls, particularly those using international numbers.
Published – September 11, 2025 07:20 pm IST
