Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation arrested three persons reportedly engaged in the online selling of registered Subscriber Identity Module cards.

Arrested in separate operations in Pasay City and Las Piñas City were identified by the NBI as Beverly Cruz, Keone Gabrielle Lebumfacil and Aljon Christian Reyes.

Violations of Section 7 of Republic Act 11934, the Sim Registration Act, in relation to Section 6 and Section 4(a)(5)(i)(aa) of RA 10175, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 were filed against them.

The NBI said the operation stemmed from the information that several individuals were selling registered SIM cards on Facebook specifically on the SIM Card Philippines buying and selling group.

The registered SIM cards are allegedly used for fraudulent purposes, such as online scams.

It said that Lebumfacil and Reyes were arrested in Las Piñas City as part of an operation against the Facebook account with the name Armando Samling which claimed to have 5,000 pieces of registered SIM cards that were being sold at P30 each.

The NBI said the subjects Lebumfacil and Reyes were placed under arrest after receiving P2,000 as payment for the registered SIM cards.

A total of 1,023 SIM cards of different networks were seized in the said operations wherein some were verified to be registered and some are unregistered, deactivated, or expired.