Meerut (UP), March 27 Uttar Pradesh Police busted an illegal VoIP telephone exchange in Meerut and arrested six persons for allegedly routing international calls as local ones to conceal identities and carry out financial fraud, officials said on Friday.
A VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) call uses the internet to transmit voice instead of traditional phone networks. It converts voice into digital signals, enabling cheaper calls and, in some cases, masking of caller identity, according to officials.
Senior Superintendent of Police Avinash Pandey said the action was carried out jointly by the SWAT team and the ATS unit following complaints from the Department of Telecommunications.
Acting on the inputs, police raided a premises near Ayesha Masjid in the Lisadi Gate area and arrested the accused, Fardeen, Nazim alias Furqan, Faheem, Sultan, Shadab and Rahis, police said.
During the interrogation, the accused allegedly confessed to procuring SIM cards fraudulently in the names of unsuspecting individuals and using them in VoIP GSM gateway devices to convert international calls into local calls, thereby masking the identity of callers, they said.
Police said such operations are often used to facilitate cyber fraud and other illegal activities.
A large quantity of equipment, including five VoIP GSM gateway machines, three laptops, 186 SIM cards, Wi-Fi devices, routers, antennas and mobile phones, was recovered from the spot.
A case has been registered at Lisadi Gate police station, and further legal action is underway, officials said.