European law enforcement dismantled and seized an expansive cybercrime operation used to facilitate phishing attacks via mobile networks for fraud, including account intrusions, credential and financial data theft, Europol said Friday.

Investigators from Austria, Estonia and Latvia linked the cybercrime networks to more than 3,200 fraud cases, which also involved investment scams and fake emergencies for financial gain. Financial losses amounted to about $5.3 million in Austria and $490,000 in Latvia, authorities said.

The operation dubbed “SIMCARTEL” netted seven arrests and the seizure of 1,200 SIM box devices, which contained 40,000 active SIM cards that were used to conduct various cybercrimes over telecom networks. Officials described the infrastructure as highly sophisticated, adding that the online service it supported provided telephone numbers for criminal activities to people in more than 80 countries.

“It allowed perpetrators to set up fake accounts for social media and communications platforms, which were subsequently used in cybercrimes while obscuring the perpetrators’ true identity and location,” Europol said in a news release.

The law enforcement operation largely occurred Oct. 10 in Latvia, spanning 26 searches that also resulted in the seizure of hundreds of thousands of additional SIM cards, five servers and two websites. Officials also seized four luxury vehicles and froze a combined $833,000 in suspects’ bank and cryptocurrency accounts. 

Europol said the full scale of the cybercrime network is still under investigation, but they’ve already traced the operation to more than 49 million accounts that were created and provided by the suspects. 

The services provided by the cybercriminal organization were also allegedly used to commit extortion, migrant smuggling and various scams involving second-hand marketplaces, fake investments, shops and websites. 

The coordinated takedown underscored the global prevalence of SIM farms, which allow cybercriminals to conduct and sell services for scams and various criminal activities via mobile network infrastructure. The Secret Service last month disrupted a network of electronic devices in the New York City area that included more than 300 servers and 100,000 SIM cards spread across multiple sites in the region. 

Unit 221B on Thursday warned that SIM boxes and SIM farms are growing rapidly, placing any phone user, bank, network carrier or retailer at risk. Ben Coon, Unit 221B’s chief intelligence officer, has identified at least 200 SIM boxes operating across dozens of locations across the United States, the company said on LinkedIn.

Europol published a video of the Latvian police takedown: ​​https://youtu.be/Z-ImysXws-0

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The Secret Service said Tuesday that it disrupted a network of electronic devices in the New York City area that posed imminent telecommunications-based threats to U.S. government officials and potentially the United Nations General Assembly meeting currently underway.

The range of threats included enabling encrypted communications between threat groups and criminals, or disabling cell towers and conducting denial-of-service attacks to shut down cell communications in the region. Matt McCool, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office, said the agency’s early analysis of the network indicated “cellular communications between foreign actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement.”

In all, the agency said it discovered more than 300 servers and 100,000 SIM cards spread across multiple sites within 35 miles of the U.N. meeting. The Secret Service announcement came the same day President Donald Trump was scheduled to deliver a speech to the General Assembly.

“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a news release.

McCool said in a video statement that the investigation was ongoing, but the threat the network posed had been neutralized.

“These devices allowed anonymous, encrypted communications between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises, enabling criminal organizations to operate undetected,” he said. “This network had the potential to disable cell phone towers and essentially shut down the cellular network in New York City.

“We will continue working toward identifying those responsible and their intent, including whether their plan was to disrupt the U.N. General Assembly and communications of government and emergency personnel during the official visit of world leaders in and around New York City,” McCool continued.

News outlets briefed on the operation reported that the network anonymously conveyed assassination threats against senior U.S. officials, that the agency had never seen such an extensive operation, that the investigation uncovered empty electronic safehouses rented around the area and that hackers, terrorists, spies and human traffickers could’ve made use of the network. The investigation reportedly began in response to swatting and bomb threats against U.S. officials.

Other participants in the investigation were the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the New York Police Department.

Some cybersecurity professionals reacted skeptically to elements of the Secret Service announcement.

“Super weird framing by the Secret Service,” Marcus Hutchins, the researcher known for stopping the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack, wrote on BlueSky. “They found a SIM card farm, which is typically used by criminals to anonymously send calls and texts. They issued a press release claiming ‘it could have shut down the entire NY cell network during the UN general assembly’ which is some serious FUD,” he said, using the acronym for “fear, uncertainty and doubt.”

He added: “it’s possible they found an actual plot to cause widespread destruction, but way more likely they found some generic cybercrime service and have absolutely no clue what it’s for.”

Johns Hopkins cryptography expert Matthew Green wrote on the same social media platform that “I no longer know what we can trust from the Secret Service, especially when a ‘Trump speech’ is involved, and the mechanics of this thing are a little bizarre.”

Updated 9/23/25: to include reaction from cybersecurity professionals.

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