Riga, Latvia – In a carefully coordinated international operation dubbed “SIMcartel,” authorities dismantled a massive SIMbox infrastructure in Latvia used to facilitate online fraud. The platform enabled anonymous account creation and transactions, affecting victims across multiple countries.

On October 10, 2025, the Latvian State Police’s Cybercrime Division, working with the Counter-Terrorism Unit OMEGA, seized 1,200 SIMbox devices containing 40,000 international SIM cards and confiscated five servers, fully taking control of the IT network, including the company websites gogetsms.com and apisim.com.

The operation led to the arrest of five individuals in Latvia, including the suspected organizer and technical staff, as well as a sixth person wanted internationally by Estonian authorities. Investigators also secured 431,000 euros in bank accounts and 266,000 euros in cryptocurrency, along with four exclusive vehicles.

The SIMbox service offered over 80 international phone numbers, enabling registrations on more than 160 online platforms. Authorities estimate that around 50 million accounts were created through the system, leading to fraud that affected at least 3,200 people and caused nearly 5 million euros in losses.

Further investigations are ongoing in Latvia, Estonia, and Austria, with local authorities probing the damage and related criminal activity. The joint effort involved EUROPOL, EUROJUST, Austrian and Estonian police, CERT.LV, and the Shadowserver Foundation.

Authorities emphasize that suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty under the law.

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