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A Lancashire man has been sentenced to more than three-and-a-half years in prison following an investigation into the use of sophisticated fraud technology to send out malicious text messages.
Mohammed Faiyaz Iqbal, 43, of Maple Crescent, Preston, was arrested on May 24, 2024, while sitting in a van in the car park at the Trafford Centre.
Officers identified the vehicle as being in the same vicinity as a large number of fraudulent SMS text messages being transmitted to members of the public.
A search uncovered multiple mobile phones in the front of the vehicle, while in the rear an SMS ‘blaster’ system was found concealed within purpose-built wooden compartments.
Mohammed Faiyaz Iqbal (Image: City of London Police)
The equipment included power sources, Wi-Fi components, and aerials installed into the roof of the vehicle.
The devices were turned on and actively being used in conjunction with applications on mobile phones.
The equipment acted as a rogue mobile antenna, bypassing telecommunications network security and broadcasting SMS messages directly to nearby devices.
The messages sent by Iqbal impersonated legitimate organisations, including Royal Mail, and were designed to trick recipients into providing payment and personal details, commonly referred to as “smishing”.
When it was seized in May 2024, this was the first known instance of UK law enforcement encountering an SMS blaster.
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Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Little, from City of London Police’s dedicated card and payment crime unit, said: “This case demonstrates the evolving nature of fraud and the lengths offenders will go to in order to target victims at scale.
“The seizure of this equipment is a significant step in disrupting emerging threats that seek to bypass established telecommunications safeguards. We will continue to work closely with partners across banking and telecommunications to identify, pursue and bring to justice those responsible for committing fraud.”
Examination of Iqbal’s mobile phones revealed 7,859 compromised payment card details. Further searches at his home address uncovered additional compromised banking material and three counterfeit UK driving licences, which were being used to set up impersonation bank accounts to launder criminal proceeds.
Iqbal was charged with:
Iqbal pleaded guilty at his first hearing on March 9 and was sentenced on August 28 to three years and eight months’ imprisonment.
The judge determined that the appropriate sentence was five years and six months, but this was reduced by one third following his guilty plea.
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