

Man Possessing 100,000 Unregistered SIM Cards Arrested In India - diggericon
http://www.chiphazard.com/2011/07/25/man-possessing-100000-unregistered-sim-cards-arrested-india/

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billswift
>> _Logically speaking, someone who just wants a SIM for his personal use, he
won’t be bothered about providing his authentic documents to the network,
however when someone has dirty business to do, providing authentic documents
is definitely on his not-to-do list._

Yet another claim of "You don't need privacy if you have nothing to hide."
Does anyone know if the US requires all SIM cards to be "registered"?

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qq66
There may be state-level laws on this, but in general I've never needed to
provide authentication to buy a prepaid cell phone. (Although you would need
to pay cash to be anonymous). I know that some lawmakers are trying to change
this.

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jordan0day
While it's easy to quickly speculate that the only purpose of 100,000
"unregistered" SIM cards is to "do bad things", I have to wonder: Why does a
SIM card _need_ to be registered to begin with?

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SpikeGronim
SIM cards need to be registered so that the Indian police can track criminals.
Personally I disagree with this. Criminals will disregard this law so it will
usually only apply to law abiding citizens. Try explaining that to the Indian
CBI though...

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hannibalhorn
Never bought a SIM in India, but if it's anything like, say, Argentina where
it takes 30 minutes and several pages of paperwork just to get a SIM... I'd
opt to go with the guy that doesn't require all that paperwork too, just to
avoid the hassle. Can't jump to the conclusion that all the renters are intent
on "doing bad things".

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andrebeat
In Portugal you don't have to register or show any documentation to buy a SIM
card, and I know it's the same thing at least in The Netherlands. You can buy
a prepaid card at any phone store and you can use it right away.

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VladRussian
criminal possession of more than an ounce of Schedule 2 dr.... err...
integrated circuits.

Interesting that they emphasize the "possession", not that his business itself
is, very likely, unlicensed wrt. some law.

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diggericon
Point is even if your a criminal why do you need 100k sims? The only business
which involves so many sims is VoIP

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adnanshaffi
What the hell was he doing with 100k SIM cards?

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adolph
The article says he was renting them. It doesn't specify the means of
possession, like a hundred thousand little pockets on the inside of his
jacket, a burly aluminum case handcuffed to his wrist, or a peddler's cart.

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nekitamo
That's a lot of gmail accounts.

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aliqayyum
u can expect from india

