Several mobile recharge outlets across Uttar Pradesh are selling women’s phone numbers based on their looks. The men who buy the numbers sometimes pay as much as Rs 500 for a woman’s contact details, according to state police officers who uncovered the racket after examining data from a 24-hour women’s helpline set up the by the state government, Hindustan Times reported on Friday.

While the contact details of someone considered “beautiful” can be sold for as much as Rs 500, the price of an “ordinary looking girl’s’ number fetches Rs 50, according to the report. Inspector General of Police Navneit Sekera told the English daily that the contact details were being stored by the staff running the recharge outlet, and the men purchasing the numbers were using their anonymity to harass the girls.

However, Sekera said the sale and purchase of the numbers had not led to any criminal cases, adding that they could only prosecute recharge outlet staff for false documentation. “We have booked three recharge sellers so far under Section 467 [of the Indian Penal Code] for dealing in false documents,” he said. Separately, one of the staff members manning the Women Power Line said most of the men he called after receiving a complaint against them justified their behaviour. “Some say ‘she is my girlfriend who has stopped talking to me’, some say ‘I dialled the number by mistake’”.

Criminal lawyer Avninder Singh told the newspaper that the act could still be considered criminal as those selling the numbers were breaking the trust between them and the women providing their details for monetary transactions. “If he sells her information, he is guilty of exchanging that privilege for economic advantage, a criminal offence punishable with as much as seven years in jail,” Singh said.