Teenager arrested for selling ghost SIM cards online

Police arrested a 17 year old boy who sold ghost SIM cards online at his house in Ranong province in southern Thailand. The teenager used information from his previous customers to repeatedly register SIM cards for sale. Narudom managed to make over 500 transactions.

Officers from the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau raided a house in the Khao Niwet sub-district, Mueng district, Ranong province yesterday and arrested the teenager, Narudom, also known as M, who sold ghost SIM cards via a Facebook account called Mr M (นาย’ย เอ็ม’ม).

Following the investigation, the police seized 703 registered SIM cards, a mobile phone, and two SIM card readers as evidence.

The arrest came after the police received a tip-off that someone was secretly selling ghost SIM cards on Facebook. The investigation led officers to the said Facebook page where they found several posts advertising various types of ghost SIM cards. For example…

“SIM Cards for sale, both registered and unregistered. AIS DTAC TRUE. AIS The OneSIM 39 baht. DTAC 35 baht. DTAC 39 baht with free top-up money.”

Narudom confessed to selling the ghost SIM cards online. He revealed that he ordered the unregistered SIM cards from a local phone shop. He then posted the items for sale on Facebook and would register the SIM cards when receiving the orders. He used the personal information of his previous customers who had bought SIM cards from him.

Consequently, the police charged Narudom with arranging, advertising, or otherwise facilitating the sale of mobile phone numbers for mobile phone services which have been registered under someone else’s name, but cannot be identified. The penalty will be imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of up to 300,000 baht.

According to ThaiRath, police in the Isaan province of Khon Kaen arrested three suspects for selling ghost SIM cards today. The first suspect was a 49 year old woman named Pinyada Thongteeraparp who sold ghost SIM cards via the e-commerce application Shopee. The second suspect was a 42 year old man named Thanakrit Homchan who owned a local phone shop in the province. The latest suspect was a 34 year old woman named Kanyaphak Chantasi who sold the ghost SIM cards at her phone shop located in a shopping mall.

Another illegal SIM cards seller, 38 year old man named Dilake Limpanaporn, was arrested at his house in the Samut Prakarn province near Bangkok on Saturday, May 21. He sold ghost SIM cards on the e-commerce application Lazada.