'SMS blasters' are sending 100,000 texts per hour
Scammers have started using portable "SMS blasters" that mimic real cell towers, tricking nearby phones into connecting and downgrading to a less secure 2G network.
This sneaky move lets them send up to 100,000 scam texts per hour—no need for your number—often packed with phishing links.
The trend has popped up in places like the UK
These scam texts pretend to be from trusted brands and can dodge most spam filters, making them tough to spot.
The trend has popped up in places like the UK, Thailand, Indonesia, and across several continents.
Police have started cracking down: in June 2025, a man was arrested in the UK for driving around London with an SMS blaster in his car; similar schemes have been spreading recently across Asia-Pacific nations and Western Europe/South America.
Since these devices work outside regular networks and are easy to operate (sometimes just by hiring drivers), tracking them is tricky—and it's become a growing threat to digital privacy everywhere.