Malaysian police arrested a 65-year-old man after finding an SMS blaster in a car allegedly used to target commuters travelling between Johor Bahru and Singapore. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said the joint operation with police took place in Johor Bahru on August 6.
Johor Bahru sits alongside one of the busiest international land crossings in the world, with around 350,000 people crossing between Malaysia and Singapore on a typical day. Concentrated queues of commuters provide criminals with a large number of potential targets within the limited broadcast range of an SMS blaster.
MCMC said the vehicle was operated in densely populated areas during peak hours. Authorities seized two mobile phones, a SIM card, a GSM module, an antenna and the vehicle. Photographs show the equipment being examined in the open boot of the car.
The raid was MCMC’s sixth operation against SMS blasters during 2026 and its third in Johor, with the other three conducted in Genting Highlands. It occurred just 13 days after a 23-year-old man was found driving another SMS blaster around Johor Bahru. Across the six operations, five people have given statements to investigators and five GSM modules have been seized.
The latest case is being investigated under Section 239(1)(a) of Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and Regulation 16(1)(b) of the Communications and Multimedia (Technical Standards) Regulations 2000.
Dr Silke Holtmanns and Eleanor Holtmanns describe methods that telcos and regulators can use to identify these devices in their article about detecting SMS blasters.
The incident has been added to the SMS blaster map on the Commsrisk Global Fraud Dashboard.
The facts and the following photograph were published by MCMC on Facebook.
Photographs: MCMC
