Philippine investigators have arrested two Filipinos and two Chinese nationals in Metro Manila following the discovery of an SMS blaster. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said agents also found drugs, a gun and additional SMS blaster components in an apartment in Las Piñas.
Agents from the NBI’s Dangerous Drug Division arrested the Filipino suspects with the rented car they used to carry the device around busy parts of Metro Manila. This led to the apartment search, where the two Chinese nationals were found. They were described as the SMS blaster’s operators.
The NBI said the group sent messages impersonating a bank, with links designed to trick recipients into providing details that could be used to access their financial accounts.
One Filipino suspect told GMA News that she worked ten hours a day for PHP2,000 (USD32). They were not given specific destinations, she said, only instructions to find crowds, so they visited shopping malls. She apologised, saying they had not wanted to do it but needed to.
The use of paid drivers to carry the equipment around crowded locations is a recurring feature of these cases. In Singapore, a loan shark offered an indebted driver MYR1,000 (USD250) per day to operate an SMS blaster targeting WhatsApp users. The driver owed around MYR80,000 (USD19,800) to loan sharks.
Shopping malls have also featured in earlier Metro Manila operations. In October 2025, police arrested two SMS blaster drivers in Makati and Mandaluyong who targeted crowded locations with messages impersonating a telecoms provider. The drivers did not know each other, but police said they received instructions from the same Chinese boss through a Filipino intermediary.
The NBI said follow-up operations were continuing.
The incident has been added to the SMS blaster map on the Commsrisk Global Fraud Dashboard. GMA News’ video report is embedded below, along with screenshots taken from the footage.
Images: GMA Integrated News / 24 Oras.
