The 35-year-old allegedly drove around Bangkok earlier this month blasting out text messages to nearby phones in the hopes that recipients would click on malicious links.
A Chinese man allegedly sent a million scam SMS text messages to neighboring phones by driving in a van carrying its own radio transmitter.
Last week, police in Thailand arrested 35-year-old Yang Muyi for sending the SMS messages in the country’s capital, according to the Bangkok Post.
Yang allegedly used a so-called “SMS blaster,” or a custom radio base station that broadcasts SMS messages to nearby detectable phones while illegally using local cellphone signals. Vendors in Asia sell the equipment, which has a range of up to 2 kilometers and can be used to send out emergency messages.
Yang used the technology for scam purposes. His own SMS blaster—which included several smartphones, a Wi-Fi router, and an 8,000-watt mobile power station—was fitted inside a van. During a three-day period, the equipment sent a million SMS text messages that falsely offered rewards to recipients to dupe them into clicking a malicious link.
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“For example, ‘Your 9,268 points are about to expire! Claim your gift now!’ was widely transmitted to Advanced Info Service (AIS) users on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok,” reported the Thai Examiner.
It’s not clear how Yang was caught, but his arrest highlights how this equipment can be abused to circulate malicious text messages. Latro, a company specializing in stopping telecom fraud, noted that SMS blasters are particularly effective in densely populated urban areas.
“SMS blasters can be deployed anywhere. They have been found in backpacks, on scooters, in cars, as well as hotel rooms,” Latro said. “Because these illegal devices are small, portable, and deliver unauthorized messages that do not touch the operator’s network, they are very difficult to detect, locate, and stop.”
Earlier this year, a 19-year-old was reportedly arrested in New Zealand for using an SMS blaster to send scam text messages that pretended to come from local banks.
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I’ve been working as a journalist for over 15 years—I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017.
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