Hyderabad: Sleuths of the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) busted a racket supplying SIM cards to cyber fraud gangs and arrested five people, including a SIM card vendor, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Shamshabad while he was trying to fly to Cambodia with 198 pre-activated Indian SIMs.The crucial tip-off came from immigration authorities at RIGA.The significance of the arrest of Syed Ashraf Ali, a SIM card vendor and resident of Al Jubail Colony in Chandrayangutta, on Tuesday can be gauged from the scale of cyber frauds in the last few years.TGCSB said 24 lakh victims were duped of Rs 22,000 crore in 2025, while 19 lakh Indians lost nearly Rs 23,000 crore to cyber frauds in 2024. In Telangana, nearly 91,000 victims lost Rs 1,500 crore to cyber fraudsters in 2025, while over 90,000 people were duped of Rs 1,900 crore in 2024.After questioning the accused, the cyber sleuths found that over 600 SIM cards were illegally transported by the gang in six separate instances since 2023 to cyber fraud gangs operating from Cambodia.“Immigration officers who specifically check passengers heading for Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos, alerted us about suspected illegal transportation of Indian SIM cards,” a TGCSB officer said. A TGCSB team went to the airport and seized 198 Indian SIM cards of Vi (Vodafone Idea), Jio, and Airtel, all pre-activated and ready for use, from Ashraf Ali’s hand baggage.“On interrogation, Ashraf revealed that he was transporting the SIM cards to Cambodia for use in cyber fraud camps run by Chinese gangs. Ashraf procured SIM cards fraudulently by submitting credentials of other customers. He also colluded with a few other SIM card point of sale (PoS) agents in Hyderabad to collect more SIM cards,” the TGCSB officer said. Investigators said Ashraf was promised between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 per SIM card and an additional Rs 50,000 by one Rizwan, a native of Uttar Pradesh, for delivering them to an unidentified associate based in Cambodia. Ashraf befriended Rizwan while working in Dubai a few years ago.According to TGCSB officers, the SIM cards would have been used in committing various types of cyber frauds, including investment fraud, digital arrest frauds, and part-time job frauds targeting victims from India.“The fraudsters operating from Cambodia activate WhatsApp on their phones using the Indian SIMs and then discard them. Through WhatsApp calls and messages, they target victims in India to commit cyber frauds,” a police officer said.“About 70% of the amount lost by Indians in cyber frauds is laundered to countries like China, Singapore, Taiwan, and Dubai in the form of cryptocurrency. When Indian law enforcement authorities questioned 250 cyber slavery victims, who were repatriated from Cambodia, they confirmed that Indian WhatsApp numbers are used in Cambodia to dupe Indians,” another investigator said.Police filed a suo motu case against Ashraf under Sections 66-C and 66-D of the Information Technology (IT) Act, read with Section 318(4) (Cheating), 61 (Criminal conspiracy) of the BNS, and Section 42(3)(e) of the Telecommunication Act.TGCSB officers also arrested four others, including Rizwan, and three local PoS agents.
