"Bank accounts and SIM cards are instruments used by [suspected] criminals for phone scams. We have created a database in collaboration with the judiciary, the Central Bank of Iran and ICT Ministry containing criminal records. This has resulted in a 57% drop in phone scams in the past few years," said Colonel Mohammad Reza Akbari, head of the Office for Combating Fraud and Forgery of the LEF Criminal Investigation Department.
In another update, head of Iran's Cyber Police (FATA), said online fraud accounted for 30% of total cybercrime in the last calendar year that ended in March.
"Online crime has increased steadily in recent years as the penetration of internet grows. E-commerce has grown exponentially since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020 and resulted in a jump in online fraud," said Colonel Ali Mohammad Rajabi, head of the Cyber Crime Detection and Prevention Center of FATA.
The Central Bank of Iran has been working closely with relevant authorities to curb digital crime. In a move last year to curb cybercrime related to debit card fraud and improve the security of rapidly growing online banking, the CBI instructed banks to offer OTP service to protect the IDs and accounts of clients.
Later it was announced that the measure resulted in a significant drop in phishing and exposure of sensitive information about bank accounts. The total number of phishing cases had recorded an annual increase of almost 400% months before implementation of the one-time-password.
The CBI has also launched a smart platform for automatic detection of online casinos and betting websites, with the help of which more than 11,000 payment gateways and 20,000 bank accounts linked to gambling websites were blocked.
It was announced earlier that more than 8,000 POS terminals, used in foreign countries, have been blocked by the CBI. The devices were connected to Iran's domestic payment network and used in neighboring countries mostly by owners of online casinos.
Casinos and gambling are banned in Iran since 1979.