CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Cyber Crime Wing has busted an alleged illegal SIM-box operation in Chennai's Saidapet area and arrested two employees of a loan-recovery company, in a case investigators have linked to 301 cybercrime complaints registered across India.

Source: The Mainstream

Acting on intelligence shared by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), police raided the premises of Forte Management Services in Saidapet, reports said.

Superintendent of Police (Cyber Crime Wing) S Selvanagarathinam said the company ran a legitimate loan recovery and collection service for banks and non-banking financial companies, while allegedly conducting cybercrime activities through its backend.

Source: The Mainstream

What police seized

Police seized 11 SIM boxes — three devices with 64 slots, seven with 32 slots and one damaged unit — along with 182 SIM cards, two servers and two CPUs, according to the reports.

Source: The420

The arrested employees were identified as Srinivasan, a manager, and Sanjay, an information technology technician. Police said the company's owner is yet to be arrested and that other employees and the seized equipment are being examined.

Investigators linked the setup to 301 cybercrime complaints registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, including 52 cases from Tamil Nadu. Police allege the network was used to route fraudulent calls and impersonate officials; the investigation is continuing. The allegations have not been tested in court.