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Officers detain 15 people for assisting fraudsters with number swapping

Investigators identified 7,000 subscriber numbers linked to the fraudulent operation and determined that the scammers used virtual servers based in European countries to route voice calls

MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. The Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB) have detained 15 people suspected of supplying communication centers for number spoofing on the instructions of fraudsters from abroad, Russian Interior Ministry Spokeswoman Irina Volk said.

According to Volk, authorities uncovered 28 SIM-boxes and two SIM-banks operating across five Russian regions last month. Investigators identified 7,000 subscriber numbers linked to the fraudulent operation and determined that the scammers used virtual servers based in European countries to route voice calls. These servers were configured to remotely manage clusters of SIM-boxes.

In a coordinated operation, the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Criminal Investigation Department, along with regional police units in the Amur, Bryansk, Lipetsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Rostov, Smolensk, Stavropol, and Yaroslavl regions, as well as the Republics of Chuvashia and Bashkortostan, conducted simultaneous raids and detentions.

"The operation successfully dismantled the network, detaining 15 individuals involved in running these illegal communication hubs," Volk announced on her Telegram channel.

She added that equipment, several thousand SIM cards from various mobile operators, documents, and other evidentiary materials were seized. Multiple criminal cases have been initiated under the relevant fraud article of the Russian Criminal Code.

"Preventive measures have been imposed on the detainees while investigators work to identify all accomplices and victims of these fraudulent schemes," Volk stated.

The spokeswoman emphasized the ongoing efforts of the Russian Interior Ministry's Bureau for Special Technological Measures, which - in collaboration with regional police departments and the FSB - is employing artificial intelligence to dismantle communication hubs operated by foreign fraudsters. These criminal networks facilitate phone scams targeting Russian citizens through number spoofing technology.

Volk highlighted the ministry's extensive use of AI-powered big data analysis. "This technology enables us to pinpoint the locations of criminal networks and gather crucial operational intelligence about their activities," she explained.

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