A man who sold mobile phones from a cart has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for using simboxes to send 3 million SMS messages on behalf of loan sharks, including 30,000 messages that impersonated legitimate banks, reports Singapore newspaper Lianhe Zaobao.
Chen Zhicheng borrowed money from loan sharks when the COVID-19 pandemic affected his business and he was no longer able to pay his rent. The loan sharks harassed his family when Chen was unable to repay what he owed, but they asked Chen if he knew of a way to work around the Sender ID registration rules for A2P SMS, and thus send SMS ‘adverts’ for loans. Chen suggested he could use a simbox to send the SMS messages through P2P channels instead. Two simboxes were purchased by Chen with more money borrowed from the loan sharks. Chen also obtained at least a hundred SIM cards that were purchased through an app using the Tether cryptocurrency.
3 million messages were sent by Chen on behalf on 15 different loan sharks between January and April 2023. The loan sharks gave Chen instructions about the content of the messages, including the contact details to be given to borrowers. Chen would then record videos of himself sending the messages so he could demonstrate he had done the work as promised.
Tether, which is a stablecoin with a 1:1 peg to the US Dollar, was used for payments by the loan sharks to Chen. He received an income of around 300 to 350 Tether for every 10,000 messages that he sent. This was either paid to him or netted against debts he still owed to some of the loan sharks.
At the beginning of April 2023, Chen was contacted through social media by a person called ‘Dai Wei’ who offered to pay for the sending of smishing messages containing links to a website that impersonated DBS Bank. Chen was paid 9,825 in Tether for sending 30,168 DBS smishing messages between April 2 and April 19. At least 12 victims lost money as a result of this scam.
Police arrested Chen on April 20, 2023. They seized the two simboxes, 270 SIM cards, and two laptops.
The full story from Lianhe Zaobao can be found here.
