# Stolen phone of 88-year-old leads to 9 arrests in cyber fraud ring 2026-08-10T12:06:38+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Delhi police have arrested nine people in an interstate cyber-fraud network after an 88-year-old man from West Patel Nagar reported his phone stolen on May 19. When he got a new SIM two days later, Rs 70,000 had been taken from his account in three unauthorised transactions. An FIR was registered on July 23. Police say the syndicate had three stages: street-level thieves stole phones, a group in Meerut and Ghaziabad supplied mule accounts and SIM cards, and a Jaipur team used the devices to drain victims' money. Raids at a Jaipur residence and in Meerut and Ghaziabad yielded laptops, 52 phones, 70 debit cards, 145 SIM cards, 6 POS machines and Rs 4 lakh in cash. Main operator Nikhil Soni (26) is among those held. The network has been linked to 19 complaints on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. ## Coverage - ndtv.com - rediff.com Tags: cyber fraud, Delhi Police, interstate crime, investigation, stolen phone Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/stolen-phone-leads-delhi-police-to-cyber-fraud-network/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/stolen-phone-leads-delhi-police-to-cyber-fraud-network/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.