45 arrested over fake SIM operation

[Bradley Prior]

45 arrested over fake SIM operation
The South African Police Service (SAPS) arrested 43 suspected illegal immigrants and two South Africans on Friday in a crackdown on a counterfeit SIM card operation.

 

[lord-of-war]

What is the point of a fake sim card? Will it even register on any network?

“SAPS said technicians from mobile network providers were called to the scene and confirmed that the SIM cards were imitations”

 

[Sapphiron]

What is the point of a fake sim card? Will it even register on any network?

“SAPS said technicians from mobile network providers were called to the scene and confirmed that the SIM cards were imitations”

Exactly, the real criminals you need to catch are the ones authorizing them on the networks. i.e. corrupt higher level staff at MTN, Vodacom etc.

 

[pstation]

This looks like one of those "international bypass" setups. The story about them being fake sim cards is nonsense though.



Worked with a guy who got insanely rich doing this in the late 1990s/2000s. He built these setups in shipping containers and shipped them around the world and hired locals to frequently rotate sim cards after they'd get shut down.

 

[IamNoone]

Will it even register on any network?

That is what I asked in the previous post about this same incident.

Are SIM cards not set up to connect to that SIM cards network provider. I am sure there are supposed to be safeguards in place with the networks to prevent rogue SIM cards connecting to their network.

The only other thing I could think of is that they were cloning existing SIM cards for nefarious reasons.

 

[pstation]

That is what I asked in the previous post about this same incident.

Are SIM cards not set up to connect to that SIM cards network provider. I am sure there are supposed to be safeguards in place with the networks to prevent rogue SIM cards connecting to their network.

The only other thing I could think of is that they were cloning existing SIM cards for nefarious reasons.

Creating "counterfeit" sim cards would mean that you would also need to create a rogue counterfeit mobile network that the sim cards can connect to. Sim cards, especially newer modern ones are very secure and nearly impossible to "hack" or clone. Connecting to a network requires the sim cards be signed by a cryptographic key that only the carrier has access to. If you're already this deep in and have compromised a carrier to this level, chances are that you can already monitor and track communications without the need to going through the hassle of making "fake" sim cards.