A territory sales manager of a mobile company has filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police seeking a detailed probe into an illegal telephone exchange set up in Electronics City.
Based on the complaint, the police have registered a case against unknown people under the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Telecommunication Act, 2023, the Telegraph Act, 1885, and also under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023.
According to the complainant, company staff detected an illegal SIM box setup allegedly used for cyber fraud in Electronics City, Phase II.
According to the complaint on Friday, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had alerted the company about the illegal operation. An analysis revealed that multiple SIM numbers belonging to Vodafone Idea were being misused through SIM box devices to make fraudulent calls. The activity is a violation of the Telecommunications Act, 2023.
Based on the findings and in line with DoT guidelines, the complainant has requested police to raid the premises and initiate appropriate legal action against those involved.
The illegal telephone exchange, often called a SIM-box racket, is a setup where fraudsters route international calls through local SIM cards to mask the caller’s real identity and avoid paying legitimate international call charges. The city has become a hotspot for such operations due to easy access to technology, cheap rentals, and large migrant traffic, police said.
Officials of the Central Crime Branch, on August 4, earlier this year, unearthed an international telephone racket in Bengaluru and arrested two persons who were converting international calls to local calls using a SIM box and mobile app. They were operating the racket from a rented accommodation at Immadihalli in Bengaluru for six months.
Published – November 30, 2025 07:18 pm IST
