SIM Box Fraud Racket Busted in Bhubaneswar; Two Kerala Tech Dropouts Arrested

Bhubaneswar: In a major crackdown on organised cybercrime, police have busted a sophisticated SIM box fraud racket operating from the state capital and arrested two BTech dropouts from Kerala in connection with the case.

The Special Squad, in coordination with the Cyber Police Station, raided a boys’ hostel in the Chandrasekharpur area and uncovered the illegal setup. During the search, officials seized 10 SIM boxes, over 100 SIM cards, laptops functioning as servers, and WiFi routers from the rented accommodation.

Investigators said the accused were using SIM box technology to bypass authorised telecom gateways and illegally route international calls. The operation allegedly made calls originating from countries such as the United States and several European nations appear as local calls within India, thereby evading international call charges and escaping regulatory surveillance.

Police stated that the duo employed illegal network-jumping techniques to conceal the origin of calls and facilitate fraudulent communications. By rerouting international traffic through locally registered SIM cards, they allegedly siphoned off substantial amounts of money.

Officials revealed that the SIM cards recovered during the raid were registered in Assam but were being unlawfully used in Odisha. The accused reportedly used VOS 3000 software, believed to have originated from Bangladesh, to manage the call routing system. The hardware equipment used in the operation was allegedly sourced from China.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the racket may have interstate and possible international links. Authorities are now analysing digital evidence seized from the laptops to trace financial transactions and identify other individuals connected to the network.

The accused, who had reportedly dropped out of engineering courses midway, were managing the illegal operation from the hostel room.

Police said further investigation is underway to determine the full extent of the fraud and dismantle any remaining links in the cybercrime network.