A major international law enforcement operation led by Europol has successfully dismantled a sophisticated criminal network operating a large-scale SIM farm that powered 49 million fake accounts worldwide. The operation, codenamed SIMCARTEL, targeted a cybercrime-as-a-service platform that facilitated phishing, investment fraud, smishing, and other scams across more than 80 countries. The bust comes amid a rising wave of SMS-based fraud schemes that have caused billions in losses globally, including recent Chinese operations that netted over $1 billion from U.S. victims.
The coordinated raids, conducted on October 10, 2025, involved 26 searches across Austria, Estonia, Finland, and Latvia. Law enforcement arrested seven suspects, including five Latvian nationals. During the operation, authorities seized 1,200 SIM box devices containing 40,000 active SIM cards and five servers supporting the criminal infrastructure. Two websites advertising the service, gogetsms.com and apisim.com, were taken over and now display seizure banners.
The criminal network has been linked to over 1,700 cyber fraud cases in Austria and 1,500 in Latvia, resulting in losses of approximately €4.5 million and €420,000 respectively. The total operation disrupted fraud causing around €5 million in losses. Authorities froze €431,000 in bank accounts and €266,000 in cryptocurrency accounts belonging to the suspects, while also confiscating four luxury vehicles.
The SIM farm enabled criminals to create millions of fake accounts on social media and communication platforms, effectively concealing their identities while conducting various scams. The platform, designed for anonymous communication and payments, impacted at least 3,200 victims across multiple countries. The operation highlights a growing trend in telecommunications fraud that has prompted several countries to strengthen their defenses, including enhanced SIM card registration laws in the Philippines and AI-powered detection systems in India that recently deactivated 4 million fraudulent SIM cards.
Users who had paid for temporary numbers through the GoGetSMS service reported issues on review platforms such as Trustpilot, including non-working numbers and unresponsive customer support, indicating the fraudulent nature of the service. The temporary number services have become increasingly scrutinized as tools for bypassing legitimate SMS verification systems, leading to the development of new anti-fraud technologies in the verification space.
The operation represents a significant disruption of criminal infrastructure facilitating cyber fraud on a massive scale, demonstrating the evolving nature of SIM farms as tools for bypassing security measures and perpetrating fraud. The bust follows similar large-scale operations, including a recent South Korean police action that arrested 71 individuals involved in a major SIM card fraud scheme.
Sources: The Hacker News, Codekeeper, Europol Official Newsroom, Computing, The Record
