A man is being held in police custody for allegedly selling legally registered mobile phone SIM cards without requiring customer identification documents.

Armed with a search warrant, issued by the Samut Prakan provincial court, officers from the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) searched a house in an estate on the Srinagarind-Bang Na road in Bang Phli, belonging to 38-year-old “Direk”, a SIM card dealer for a mobile phone company.

The police found 340 legally-registered SIM cards and parcels ready to be delivered to customers.

CCIB officers said that they bought a SIM card online from Direk, received the card in a package and sought a warrant to search his house.

The suspect reportedly told the police all the SIM cards in his possession were legally registered and were received from a mobile phone company, adding that most of the cards were sold to online shops.

He said that he also bought properly registered but used SIM cards through Line and Facebook groups and sold them to customers via online applications.

Pol Col Pakornkit Thanawarinkul, a superintendent of the CCIB’s third subdivision, said that SIM cards which are sold to customers without their identification documents being produced could be used in illegal activities and cannot be traced to their owners.

The penalties for selling SIM cards without requiring IDs of customers are 2-5 years in prison and/or a fine of up to 500,000 baht.

Both the sellers and buyers who use the SIM cards in illegal activities are also liable to punishment, he added.

He advised owners of unused SIM cards to ask their respective phone service providers to block the cards, to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.