Mangalore: Beware - Mobile Sim Racket Striking Innocent Consumers

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Mar 15: A racket which uses copies of documents furnished by the consumers to obtain multiple sims in the name of the gullible persons, has been unearthed from Suratkal near here. There is likelihood that this racket would have spread its tentacles all over the state and elsewhere.

A person from Suratkal origin had recently visited a shop for recharging his mobile phone. He found that some applications made out in his name were lying on the table there. When he questioned the concerned, they failed to provide a convincing reply. Growing suspicious, he then conveyed this information to some others and the policemen. During the verification of applications there, a number of applications standing in the names of some well-known persons from the area were found. When contacted, these persons denied having applied for, or received sim cards of late. It has transpired that photographs of these persons had been collected from other sources, and by creating copies of the voter identity cards or other documents, sim cards in the names of these dignitaries had been obtained.

The policemen, who have begun a suo moto investigation into the racket, have raided a number of centres engaged in selling sim cards and warned them. They have found that the sim card vendors have been finding out ingenious ways to improve their earnings and get rewards under various offers announced by companies to sellers of more number of cards. These sims, most of the time, continue to lie with the sellers. If these sims are not used for over three months, they get deactivated, and after expiry of this period, the sellers produce the same documents to get the same sim again, to add to the number of sims issued by them.

Some companies have been offering as high Rs 100 to 150 per sim sold. It is said that some individuals offer money to sellers of sim cards to buy ‘ready sims’. If these ready-to-use sims reach the hands of crooked people, innocent people will be facing the problems, and they may also run the risk of being jailed, if the sims are used for criminal activities.

To avoid getting trapped by these rackets, some say that the consumers should affix their signatures so that part of it extends beyond the photographs, to make copying of photographs difficult. At the time of handing over Xerox copies of documents, they should be signed on their faces, as signing on blank spaces will enable the vendors to take out more copies of these records. One suggestion is that the mobile companies, on their part, can avoid this risk, by issuing sims strictly after every document is verified by them. Although the consumers may have to wait for a few days in this case, it is worth, considering the risks they run if sims issued in their names reach unscrupulous hands.