Regular readers will be conscious that criminals in various countries have begun using portable radio devices as false base stations that transmit fraudulent SMS messages to any mobile phone within range. Reductions in the cost and size of these SMS-blasting IMSI-catchers has led to them being driven around towns in motor vehicles, with the result that the criminals can reach many thousands of potential victims without alerting police or network operators. Now the next evolutionary phase of this technique has arrived, with battery-powered devices being carried by criminals as they walk through parts of towns where many people circulate. Police in Thailand reported arresting two residents of Hong Kong who sent SMS messages from a device in a backpack as they walked around Bangkok’s busy Siam shopping district.
It is believed that SMS messages were sent to passersby within a 1km radius. No details have been given about the content of the SMS messages that were sent, although they evidently included a malicious URL. The police warned the public not to click links in SMS messages they received.
The police stated they arrested the Hong Kongers in the Siam Paragon shopping mall on 8 April at around 6pm in the evening. One of the men carried the false base station in an ordinary-looking gray backpack (pictured above). The device was connected by wi-fi to mobile phones that the men also carried with them. The two Hong Kongers had entered the country on March 30 and had been staying in a hotel just a short walk away. Police named them as Yip, aged 44, and Lee, aged 26.
As typical of cases like these, the arrested men claimed to have no knowledge of the purpose of the device they carried. They told police that a ‘friend’ had asked them to carry it. This fits a pattern where crime bosses ensure they will never be prosecuted by employing stooges who travel to the foreign country where phone users will be targeted. The stooges may be punished, but the gang leaders who orchestrated the crime remain out of the reach of police. Police said they would continue their investigations in the hope of learning more about who gave the orders to the two arrested men. In the meantime, the two Hong Kongers have been charged with importing and using unlicensed radio equipment.
The police shared a series of photographs relating to the arrest. You can see some of them below.
