You’re walking along a busy street when a text pops up on your phone. So far, so ordinary – but the reality could be far darker.
Fraudsters are increasingly targeting commuters using portable transmitters known as ‘SMS blasters’, a new report warns today.
These devices, which can send out mass messages to all phones nearby, are usually driven in vehicles through heavily populated areas of cities like London.
The texts purport to be from legitimate organisations and seek to persuade people to reveal their confidential private or banking details – a method dubbed ‘smishing’.
SMS blasters are enabling ‘mass fraud at scale’, according to Combatting Cybercrime against Mobile Devices, a new report by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
Author Joseph Jarnecki told the Mail they allowed criminals to target people without having to know their number and can also bypass operators’ network monitoring.
He described the method as proof of the increasingly sophisticated nature of mobile phone scams, which he says ‘pose a rising threat to national security’.
Chinese student Ruichen Xiong, 22, was jailed in June after he was caught driving around London with an SMS blaster in the boot of his black Honda CR-V.
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The machines work by tricking nearby handsets into thinking it is a phone mast by appearing to have a stronger signal than nearby legitimate ones.
By doing so, the criminal is then able to send a text message to the victim’s phone.
Xiong was able to send texts to tens of thousands of potential victims between March 22 and 27.
The messages purported to be from HMRC, with each user told to click on a link and enter their personal details in order to ‘claim a tax refund’.
Xiong, who lived in Bow, East London, pleaded guilty to fraud by representation and was sentenced to 58 weeks in prison at Inner London Crown Court.
Another offender, 31-year-old Kong Ji Chen, took an SMS blaster with him during a rush hour Tube journey.
Inner London Crown Court heard how, at 5.30pm on Tuesday, July 1, a member of the public received a spam text message while travelling on the Victoria Line.
The text claimed to be from Parcel Mail and invited them to click on a link to update their personal details in order to receive a package.
The commuter was familiar with SMS blasters and grew suspicious of Chen when he noticed him loitering on the platform with a large suitcase and not getting onto any trains.
Ruichen Xiong, 22, was jailed in June after he was caught driving around London with an SMS blaster in the boot of his black Honda CR-V
A photo of the device, which tricked nearby handsets into thinking it is a phone mast by appearing to have a stronger signal than nearby legitimate ones
Police arrested Chen outside Victoria station and opened his large green suitcase to find a portable battery attached to an electrical unit with a green flashing light and a black antenna.
While the spammer was in custody, an officer checked his phone and saw that he had received the same spam text.
Further investigation found there had been 165 spam reports to mobile providers about the same message from the same number.
Chen was jailed for 24 weeks on October 15.
In his report, published today, RUSI’s Joseph Jarnecki linked a rise in mobile phone-related fraud to organised cybercriminal networks.
He said other crimes, such as romance scams, have become ‘lucrative and widespread’.
Mr Jarnecki also warned of malicious mobile phone apps that can ‘harvest user data and credentials, display unwanted advertisements, conduct click fraud and spoof mobile banking sessions’.
Another offender, 31-year-old Kong Ji Chen, took an SMS blaster with him during a rush hour Tube journey
The researcher made a series of recommendations to policymakers, including advising competition regulators to ‘account for cyber security’ when making decisions and working with app stores to improve security.
Alongside texts, scammers also continue to target victims using calls, with fraudsters now accounting for more than half of calls made to landlines, according to one report.
Data suggests that fourth fifths of people aged 65 and over continue to rely on their landline telephone – suggesting criminals are deliberately targeting the elderly.
With so many complaints about nuisance calls, many people have stopped answering the phone altogether.