Efforts by legislators and law enforcement to combat money laundering and more complex SIM card verification procedures have not significantly weakened the position of anonymous number dealers. This conclusion emerges from a study of supply in Moscow’s electronics markets.
Despite the introduction of new SIM card registration procedures in the Russian Federation, obtaining an anonymous number remains simple, including the option to reinstate it later. To circumvent these requirements, vendors use corporate SIM cards registered with fictitious companies.
As Izvestia found out, such a SIM card can be purchased without any particular obstacles.
Advertisements for sale are usually found on social media or even in stores themselves and on their websites. Other “special” products, such as compromised cameras, are also sold on these marketplaces. The price for an “anonymous” number starts at 4,000 rubles, or about 45 euros.
According to the publication’s sources, the main buyers of these SIM cards are criminal markets: “The uncontrolled flow of numbers exploited for criminal activities comes from foreign citizens. For them, the black market is not a market at all, but a common practice.
Merchants aren’t afraid to sell cards to strangers and often work through trusted intermediaries. “As Viktor Ievlev, head of cybersecurity at the Garda Group of Companies, explained, the SIM cards are registered to fictitious companies that purchase them from operators at corporate rates.”
Sometimes connections between operators’ employees or mobile phone shops are used. More questionable options are also possible, such as registering them in the names of deceased people who ended up in leaked databases.
However, Ievlev warns that purchasing such cards is associated with serious risks, problems with law enforcement, and is considered “illegal practices.”
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