Scammers' New Methods Involve Fake Cell Phone Towers

Does anyone enjoy getting text messages from scanners on their phones? The answer, presumably, is “No,” with the possible exception of a very specific variety of masochist. And with that in mind, wireless carriers have taken steps to make it harder for scammers to use their services, with the FCC issuing guidance to that effect in 2023. What happens when a scammer can’t use wireless infrastructure? As an alarming new report reveals, they make their own.

In a new article for WIRED, Matt Burgess chronicled the rising popularity of “SMS blasters,” a type of technology that emulates a cellphone tower and does precisely what its nickname suggests: that is, sending out copious numbers of scam texts. And it’s a technology that’s catching on with unethical parties all over the world.

While the devices used to distribute scam texts can be portable enough to be carried in a backpack, they can also cause a lot of trouble or annoyance: Burgess cites a report that one such device sent messages to around 100,000 phones in the span of an hour. Combine that with the mobility that the blasters’ relatively small size allows and you have the makings of a big problem.

As WIRED‘s reporting reveals, the technology first drew the ire of security advocates and law enforcement in Southeast Asia, but it’s since become more widespread, including to countries in Europe.

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This summer, The Guardian‘s Hilary Osborne reported on a case in London where a man was arrested after driving around London with one such device sending scam texts to random people. The texts purported to be from a government agency, when in fact they were from a random guy driving a Honda CR-V.

There are some precautions that can be taken to prevent texts like these from coming through, including disabling your phone’s ability to connect to 2G networks. Unfortunately for the security-minded, it does seem that any possible security vulnerability will end up exploited by someone — possibly with unscrupulous technology in tow.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…