On October 10, 2025, Europol, Eurojust and investigative partners from Austria, Estonia, Latvia and Finland, dismantled an illegal SIM box service tied to over 3,200 fraud cases that caused at least $5,247,225 in losses as part of “Op. SIMCARTEL.” Two websites were seized during the operation:
The services reportedly operated over 1,200 SIM box devices each loaded with 40,000 SIM cards to provide phone numbers that were used in various crimes, such as:
- Phishing and smishing
- Extortion
- Migrant smuggling
- Distribution of child pornography
- Second-hand marketplace fraud
- “Hi Mum” scams, where the scammers pose as the victim’s daughter/son on WhatsApp to demand thousands in payments.
- Investment fraud, including “pig butcher” scams and the usage of remote access software.
- Fake shops/banking websites
- Police officer impersonation, with most of their victims speaking Russian.
Police have also arrested five Latvian nationals and two additional suspects during the operation, with one having already been under investigation for arson and extortion in Estonia. Police also seized
- The aforementioned SIM-box devices
- Hundreds of thousands of SIM cards
- The two aforementioned web domains and five servers
- $500,000 from bank accounts
- $333,000 from Crypto accounts
- Four luxury vehicles.