The Cabinet has decided to take legal and administrative action against those who have registered SIM cards and have them inserted into phones that are smuggled into prisons.

The President's Office stated that the Cabinet came to this decision during a meeting held on Sunday.

In the past, the Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology noted an increase in illegal scam calls being made by prisoners as per an investigation, with many efforts being conducted to counteract the illegal activity.

Along with taking actionable steps against SIM card owners, the Cabinet decided to decline the sale of more than one SIM card to unskilled expatriate laborers. The Cabinet also decided to make arrangements so that the police are informed if a SIM card is lost or destroyed, and to not sell SIM cards to said individuals unless certain requirements are met.

While the Cabinet has made those decisions, statistics from the police have shown that MVR 35 million has been lost from scam calls that originate from prisons across Maldives. And since the creation of the police's Anti-Scam Center in March 2025, they have recovered MVR 13 million of the money that has been lost via reported cases to the center.