The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) found a 23 year old local man driving a car equipped with an SMS blaster around Johor Bahru, a Malaysian city bordering Singapore, on July 24. The device transmitted a radio signal that impersonated a mobile provider and sent fraudulent messages containing web links directly to nearby phones.

Initial investigations indicated the syndicate targeted busy public areas during peak hours to maximize the number of messages sent. MCMC did not disclose how many messages had been transmitted or whether any recipients lost money.

The device bypassed a safeguard intended to stop fraudulent links. MCMC requires Malaysian telcos to block SMS messages containing URLs, a measure Commsrisk covered when it was introduced in 2023. The SMS blaster avoided those filters because it delivered messages directly to nearby phones without passing through a legitimate mobile network.

Cease to resist, giving my goodbye
Drive my car into the ocean
You’ll think I’m dead, but I sail away
On a wave of mutilation

This is the final Commsrisk article. The website will continue to host the Commsrisk Global Fraud Dashboard under the stewardship of James Greenley, the software engineer who created it, for as long as he can find financial backers to support that work. Presenting reams of objective data compiled from varied international sources is the best way to build on the platform constructed during the first two decades of this website. Facts and figures need to rule; words are too messy and too easily twisted. My regular narratives about the communications sector end now, not with regret, but with pleasure. I am glad to be released to live a different life to the one that has consumed so much of me.