There is good news from Denmark where both the comms industry and law enforcement have recently scored victories over SMS frauds. A new filter is being credited with reducing the number of fraudulent messages received by Danes. Meanwhile, a Danish fraudster received a lengthy prison after admitting his guilt.
Figures supplied by the Ministry of Digitalization and published by broadcaster TV 2 state that a new content-based filter was responsible for blocking 3.8 million messages during the first quarter of 2025.
Minister of Digitalization Caroline Stage Olsen has emphasized that no human being gets to see private SMS messages, which are reviewed and scrutinized for signs of fraud by technology. Winni Grosbøll, Executive Director for the Danish Consumer Council, credits the implementation of the new filter as the only known explanation for a big drop in the number of frauds reported by consumers through the Council’s anti-fraud app.
Smishing messages were previously the most common kind of fraud associated with SMS. It is admitted that there is a small chance of legitimate messages being blocked by the new filter, which screens for URLs and uses artificial intelligence to identify signs of fraud.
Jakob Willer, Director of the Danish Telecom Industry Association, told me about the project.
We are very happy with this new solution. We needed a green light from the authorities before we could start. It has proven to be a good solution. It works!
The mobile companies got the green light for the solution in November 2024 from Minister Caroline Stage Olsen and Minister Morten Bødskov and we can already see concrete results.
The benefits are clear to all.
Both the police, the National Unit for Serious Crime (NSK) and the Consumer Council can see a decrease in their registrations of fraud after the new SMS spam filter has been put into operation by the mobile companies.
The police have also been playing their part in tackling smishing fraud by demonstrating that the long arm of the law can be very long indeed. The National Unit for Serious Crime recently announced the successful extradition from Australia of a 23 year old Danish man wanted as the leader of a team of smishing swindlers.
The fraudster succeeded or attempted to defraud 136 victims between September 2021 and December 2024 through a process that began by sending smishing messages that originated outside of Denmark. The gang would then call victims and pretend to be bank employees. They would seek to fool victims into sharing their banking details. In some cases they took control of the victim’s MitID, a form of digital identity used in Denmark.
Once they had the personal data they needed, the gang would take control of accounts to raid them or would make purchases using the stolen identities. Victims ranged in age from 16 to 82, and individual losses ranged from DKK3,000 (USD456) to DKK389,000 (USD59,250). DKK7.9mn (USD1.2mn) was stolen in total.
An international warrant was issued and the fraudster was arrested in Sydney, Australia, in March 2025. His extradition to Denmark was completed two months later, a pleasing sign of international cooperation in the enforcement of anti-fraud laws.
The scammer admitted his guilt and was sentenced to 42 months in prison, although he has appealed for a more lenient sentence. Let us hope his appeal is unsuccessful because there is a vital need to deter would-be criminals from emulating crimes like these that appear to be especially appealing to young impressionable men.
