Europol takes down SIM farm network that scammed thousands of victims

"The group had set up technically sophisticated infrastructure for a series of fraud schemes, offering telephone numbers registered to people from more than 80 countries for use in criminal activities. Fraudsters set up almost 50 million fake accounts for social media and communications platforms, which were then used for a range of different cybercrimes. The law enforcement operation, codenamed SIMCartel, was carried out by authorities from Austria, Estonia, Finland, Europol and Eurojust and took place on 10 October."

"Law enforcement took down five servers and seized 1,200 SIM box devices and 40,000 active SIM cards. Two websites that had been offering the illegal service - gogetsms.com and apisim.com - have now been taken over by law enforcement, while €431,000 ($374,500) in bank accounts and $333,000 in crypto accounts has also been frozen. Law enforcement also seized four luxury vehicles as part of the operation."

"Other frauds include the daughter-son scam - persuading victims that their child needs financial help - along with investment fraud. Fake investment websites were set up, and, once serious investors showed interest, they were encouraged to pay large sums for alleged good business opportunities. They used the SIM card service to create a vast number of fake accounts, which then served as starting points for social engineering campaigns."

Seven people were arrested in Latvia in connection with a SIM-based cybercrime-as-a-service operation that enabled large-scale fraud across Europe. The operation provided telephone numbers registered to people from over 80 countries and facilitated almost 50 million fake social media and communications accounts. The takedown, codenamed SIMCartel and executed on 10 October by authorities from Austria, Estonia, Finland, Europol and Eurojust, resulted in five servers taken down, 1,200 SIM box devices and 40,000 active SIM cards seized, two service websites taken over, significant funds frozen, and four luxury vehicles confiscated. The service enabled diverse scams including marketplace fraud, social engineering, family-emergency cons, and investment fraud.

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