Man Possessing 100,000 Unregistered SIM Cards Arrested In India

http://www.chiphazard.com/2011/07/25/man-possessing-100000-unregistered-sim-cards-arrested-india/

by diggericon • 15 years ago

15 14 15 years ago

chiphazard.com

aliqayyum• 15 years ago

u can expect from india

adnanshaffi• 15 years ago

What the hell was he doing with 100k SIM cards?

adolph• 15 years ago

The article says he was renting them. It doesn't specify the means of possession, like a hundred thousand little pockets on the inside of his jacket, a burly aluminum case handcuffed to his wrist, or a peddler's cart.

ww520• 15 years ago

Selling them? Charging $10 per one. That's a cool million dollars.

nekitamo• 15 years ago

That's a lot of gmail accounts.

jordan0day• 15 years ago

While it's easy to quickly speculate that the only purpose of 100,000 "unregistered" SIM cards is to "do bad things", I have to wonder: Why does a SIM card need to be registered to begin with?

SpikeGronim• 15 years ago

SIM cards need to be registered so that the Indian police can track criminals. Personally I disagree with this. Criminals will disregard this law so it will usually only apply to law abiding citizens. Try explaining that to the Indian CBI though...

billswift• 15 years ago

>>Logically speaking, someone who just wants a SIM for his personal use, he won’t be bothered about providing his authentic documents to the network, however when someone has dirty business to do, providing authentic documents is definitely on his not-to-do list.

Yet another claim of "You don't need privacy if you have nothing to hide." Does anyone know if the US requires all SIM cards to be "registered"?

qq66• 15 years ago

There may be state-level laws on this, but in general I've never needed to provide authentication to buy a prepaid cell phone. (Although you would need to pay cash to be anonymous). I know that some lawmakers are trying to change this.

ChuckMcM• 15 years ago

See this link: http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=9546 for non-information. Basically unregistered communicaitons are harder for law enforcement to track/monitor/etc. So there will be efforts to make them illegal.

VladRussian• 15 years ago

criminal possession of more than an ounce of Schedule 2 dr.... err... integrated circuits.

Interesting that they emphasize the "possession", not that his business itself is, very likely, unlicensed wrt. some law.

diggericon• 15 years ago

Point is even if your a criminal why do you need 100k sims? The only business which involves so many sims is VoIP

hannibalhorn• 15 years ago

Never bought a SIM in India, but if it's anything like, say, Argentina where it takes 30 minutes and several pages of paperwork just to get a SIM... I'd opt to go with the guy that doesn't require all that paperwork too, just to avoid the hassle. Can't jump to the conclusion that all the renters are intent on "doing bad things".

andrebeat• 15 years ago

In Portugal you don't have to register or show any documentation to buy a SIM card, and I know it's the same thing at least in The Netherlands. You can buy a prepaid card at any phone store and you can use it right away.

Man Possessing 100,000 Unregistered SIM Cards Arrested In India

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