In Tatarstan, officers of the Bureau of Special Technical Measures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, with the assistance of republican colleagues, neutralized a mobile communication hub that worked for the benefit of telephone scammers. With its help, attackers from abroad made fraudulent calls and stole money from Russians, replacing their numbers with Russian ones.
According to preliminary data, the mobile SIM farm operated in Kazan for several weeks.
Police searched for it during the operational support of a criminal case of remote theft with damage of about 3 million rubles. A resident of Novosibirsk, previously convicted of fraud, was taken to the police. Acting on the instructions of an anonymous curator, he ensured the operation of special equipment that allowed replacing foreign subscribers' numbers with Russian ones. A SIM box, GSM gateway, and routers, which were hidden in a car subwoofer, were used for illegal activities. The suspect came to the places indicated by the curator, activated the equipment installed in the car for a while, and then turned it off and moved to another place.
The Investigation Department of Police Department No. 9 "Safiullina" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the city of Kazan is investigating a criminal case on the grounds of a crime under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud"). The police continue to identify participants and episodes of illegal activity.
Earlier, the Ministry of Digital Development announced that, together with the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they are developing a package of draft laws aimed at limiting the use of SIM boxes and virtual automatic telephone exchanges. They are used to organize call centers, and such technologies and equipment were not regulated by law before. Which is what scammers have been using for many years.
A SIM box is a device into which you can install several dozen SIM cards. It allows you to make many calls and send SMS messages en masse. A virtual PBX is a cloud-based telephony system that allows companies to manage calls without physical equipment. Now in Russia, it is proposed to conduct mandatory identification of such devices and their subscribers through the ESIA.
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