As a result of the measures taken in March 2024 in 40 regions,

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The FSB reported a large-scale special operation to seize SIM boxes, through which social media accounts, messengers, financial wallets and bank accounts are illegally activated, which took place in 40 regions of the Russian Federation.

"The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, in cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, has stopped the illegal activities of SIM box owners, through which social media accounts, instant messengers, financial wallets and bank accounts are illegally activated, used, among other things, for sabotage and terrorist activities, as well as the dissemination of false terrorist threats and fake information," the FSB Public Relations Center (PRC) reported on Thursday.

612 SIM boxes and malta whatsapp resource more than 300 thousand SIM cards were seized.

"The police have opened criminal cases against 30 individuals under Part 3 of Article 159 (fraud) of the Russian Criminal Code, and against two more involved in unauthorized access to Gosuslugi accounts - under Part 3 of Article 272 (unauthorized access to computer information) of the Russian Criminal Code," the special service added.

At the same time, the FSB reported, “during the events, a resident of St. Petersburg, born in 1980, was detained, who provided services for activating SIM cards of Russian telecom operators in the interests of Ukrainian terrorist organizations.”

As the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs Irina Volk later reported, charges of committing remote theft of money from citizens' accounts were brought against a total of 44 defendants, and searches were conducted as part of the criminal cases opened at 177 addresses in 42 regions of Russia.

"In direct interaction with the territorial bodies of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, 937 SIM banks and 11 server stations that ensure the operation of communication devices were discovered. At least 277 thousand SIM cards of various operators were withdrawn from shadow circulation," Volk wrote in her Telegram channel on Thursday.

The representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs noted that the total capacity of the seized equipment allowed for more than 40 million fraudulent calls per day.

"The operation of large locations of criminal telephone traffic, which allowed accomplices to call from the territory of Ukraine and carry out hacker attacks aimed at destabilizing the work of commercial organizations, as well as government bodies of the Russian Federation, was stopped," Volk said.