Reconstructing Telecom Fraud Networks: Operational Insights from CID

One of the most critical emerging threat to India's digital economy is the Telecom-enabled fraud with estimated losses exceeding ₹50,000 crore over the past six years. The paper provides a functional model of forensic network reconstruction, which is based on field level investigations at Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The paper not only explores the technical anatomy of SMS interception malware, but also investigates the dynamics of fraud in the real world, specifically utilizing the cryptocurrency vectors, and offers a specialized forensic tool, CDRAnalyz, to analyze Call Detail Records (CDRs). These technical findings are contextualized in the research with references to the legal provisions on Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) 2023 [1], which pertains to the admissibility of electronic evidence. The proposed system incorporates malware reverse engineering, network topology analysis, and legal compliance systems to improve investigation systems in fighting high-tech telecom based fraud ecosystems.