A 28 year old Malaysian man has been given a prison sentence of 21 months this week after he admitted to driving an SMS blaster around Singapore, per reports from Channel News Asia. The man initially believed it was being used to send illegal messages that advertised online gambling but the messages actually contained links to a phishing website. The purpose of the phishing website was to obtain the WhatsApp credentials of victims. This is the first recorded case of an SMS blaster inside Singapore.

The man, named Ong Kak Seng, agreed to drive the device because he owed around MYR80,000 (USD19,800) to loan sharks. In exchange for driving the car, a loan shark named Bai Ge offered to pay Ong MYR1,000 (USD250) per day. This was almost 10 times more than Ong expected to make for legitimate driving jobs in Malaysia. Bai Ge told Ong that he would be using the SMS blaster on behalf of a ‘boss’ in China and gave him the choice of working in either Hong Kong or Singapore. Ong chose Singapore because this would allow him to drive his own car instead of incurring the expense of renting one. Bai Ge provided instruction on how to assemble the components of an SMS blaster and told Ong he should drive around the most heavily populated parts of Singapore. He also arranged accommodation for Ong in Singapore.

Ong traveled to Singapore on October 11, 2025, where he received the components for the SMS blaster and battery packs from a go-between. Ong assembled the SMS blaster the following day. He then joined a Telegram group that included Bai Ge and several people believed to be from China, including the ‘boss’ that Bai Ge reported to. A photograph of the assembled SMS blaster in the rear of his car was shared by Ong with the group as proof he was ready to work. Two mobile phones were purchased by Ong from a store in Geylang, in the central region of Singapore. An application he downloaded was used to control the SMS blaster.

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.