Risk, Fraud & Security

The regulator's detailed findings have not been published to protect the integrity of other investigations into the supply of phone numbers to scammers.

Do not click the link if you receive an email demanding traceback information. Follow the golden rule for verifying an unsolicited communication: call the US traceback consortium and ask if the message is genuine.

The arrests involved two Filipinos and two Chinese nationals. One suspect said she earned $32 for ten-hour days taking the device around shopping malls, following instructions to seek out crowds.

They use their inside knowledge of the US justice system to send fake arrest warrants and demands for payment in bitcoin.

Officers arrested a 33-year-old Chinese national outside a Sihanoukville condominium, recovering two antennas, a power inverter and three mobile phones, one reportedly used to control the equipment.

Police arrested five people after finding an SMS blaster in a car that travelled slowly back and forth beside a busy Jakarta metro route, with the gang aiming to send 20,000 smishing messages a day.

German police say phone numbers and telecoms services are being rented to international fraud networks, while Germany's telecoms regulator orders tighter KYC checks.

Ofcom has 'concerns' about the potential misuse of UK phone numbers allocated to Voxbone SA, a subsidiary of Bandwidth, and Vonage Business Limited, a subsidiary of Ericsson.

Chinese gangsters used SMS blaster smishing to take control of Singaporean WhatsApp accounts as a stepping stone to authorized push payment fraud.

Malaysian authorities arrested a 65-year-old man who allegedly used a car-mounted SMS blaster to target peak-hour commuters travelling between Johor Bahru and Singapore.

Police linked more than 6,000 smishing messages to 16 WhatsApp account hijacking frauds that caused losses exceeding HKD300,000.

MCMC found a 23 year old man driving around Johor Bahru with an SMS blaster that sent scam links. This was its fifth special operation against the devices during 2026.