Authorities in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, have dismantled a major SIM box operation, uncovering a trove of equipment suspected of being used in various fraud and cybercrime schemes on PayPal, Facebook, Google, and other platforms.
The bust involved large amounts of equipment likely used for criminal activities ranging from fraud to faking social media accounts, Lithuanian authorities said. In total, over 200 SIM boxes, 100 computers, and over 75,000 SIM cards were seized.
“SIM cards could have been used to commit cybercrime using VoIP (Voice over IP), as well as by creating fake accounts on social networks and payment systems PayPal, Facebook, Google, Telegram, and WhatsApp,” the Vilnius County Police Headquarters said.
Authorities arrested two suspects, saying they will continue to look for all parties involved in running the bot farm.
Based on the seized equipment, the bot farm could have run hundreds of thousands of different social media accounts across numerous platforms. While most websites require a phone number to register, there are ways to bypass these requirements to get the most out of a SIM card.
Local police said the operation was launched after the Lithuanian Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) notified authorities about a possible SIM swarm operating from the country’s capital.
An investigation revealed several locations across the city housing over 600,000 residents. Police eventually narrowed the search down to three areas, noticing highly unusual activity in several network towers.
Lithuanian authorities claim the investigation was hampered by the fact that the swarms operated in large administrative buildings. However, officers later identified individuals likely behind the scheme. The suspects technically provide SIM swarms by traveling to various European countries and purchasing large quantities of SIM cards from various operators.
The bust marks a second major operation against bot farms in the region. Last week, Europol announced that a similar operation in Latvia allowed authorities to take down five servers and seize 1,200 SIM box devices and 40,000 active SIM cards.
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