[immibis]

This is a legitimate service also used by privacy minded individuals - just like the recent similar raid in the USA. What's the actual crime here?

[whynotmaybe]

Per another article : Europol und Eurojust, were able to attribute to the criminal network more than 1 700 individual cyber fraud cases in Austria and 1 500 in Latvia, with a total loss of several million euros. The financial loss in Austria alone amounts to around EUR 4.5 million, as well as EUR 420 000 in Latvia.

So I guess they were providing legitimate business while doing scams at the same time.

[izacus]

The fact that it was run by actual organized crime group using the SIMs to commit crimes in masse. Article lays it out quite clearly.

[immibis]

After the USA did the exact same thing, I'm predisposed to not trust this statement without seeing any evidence. The USA seems to have assumed criminal activity simply based on the fact of unusual hardware, and I'd like to see evidence the EU hasn't done the same. Perhaps my skepticism is misplaced though, perhaps the police over there are less arrest-hungry and they have only done this after having real evidence that this SIM farm actually belongs to a spam ring and isn't just something they use.

[izacus]

This didn't happen in USA and don't compare EU (or Latvia or Austria or any othe participating states) to a fascist state ruled by a tyrant.

In any case, you had all the facts laid out in the article.

[mrtksn]

It's usually the illegitimate use cases that cause problem. According to the article the problem was that they were used for scams.

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

Network operators have a right to know who is using their pipes.

[yupyupyups]

This is not about individual network operators making the choice by themselves, rather they are many times compelled to do so by law.

This is partucularly problematic when it comes to mobile services as they allow people to be tracked.

[immibis]

AFAIK network operators are no longer required to know their customer, but may still choose to do so. They're required to cooperate with law enforcement investigations. This doesn't seem like "cooperation" in this case, but rather "police just barge in and take all your stuff" and they probably could win a civil case against the police to get their equipment back or its monetary value, as well as lost revenue. Europe generally has higher rule of law than USA, so there's less chance a judge could say "your business sounds shady so you don't win this case."

The recent EU-wide Digital Services Act has generous liability protections for "mere conduits". A mere conduit is anyone who is just getting traffic from A to B, unless they are A or B themselves. Even though in this case their cellphone operator may think they are originators of traffic, if they are a relay business (and not spammers themselves) then they are mere conduits and protected from liability*. Of course they must still cooperate with law enforcement to track down the source of the spam, but they are not required to pre-emptively KYC. Having their office raided and all their equipment stolen doesn't sound like "cooperating" to me.

* their cellphone company probably has the right to terminate these SIM contracts, and may also sue for damages, but I suspect the damages would be something like the difference between their actual cost of SIM cards and the EU-prescribed maximum wholesale rate for sending texts, which is likely a negative number.