Key takeaways: Criminals are using backpack-sized rogue base stations to impersonate cell towers and blast smishing SMS, up to 100,000 texts/hour within ~1 km by forcing 2G fallback .
within ~1 km by forcing . These messages bypass carrier defenses (SMS firewalls, SS7/SMPP monitoring) because they never traverse the operator’s network.
(SMS firewalls, SS7/SMPP monitoring) because they never traverse the operator’s network. First seen in Southeast Asia , the tactic is spreading to Europe, South America, Japan, and New Zealand , with losses poised to surge at scale.
, the tactic is spreading to , with losses poised to surge at scale. Protect yourself: disable 2G (Android) / enable Lockdown Mode (iPhone), avoid unsolicited links, verify with the purported sender, and report to 7726 (SPAM), FTC (US), or Action Fraud (UK).
Scammers have found a new way to infiltrate our devices, causing a never-before-seen headache for law enforcers.
Criminals are now using portable base-station devices, which are so small they can be hidden in backpacks. What do they do? Impersonate cell towers and bombard your SMS inbox with scammy texts.
Known as “smashing,” this is an old scam technique with a new delivery method. Traditionally, criminals relied on large lists of numbers and network-based spoofing to send fraudulent messages.
Now, however, criminals can simply drive a vehicle and send these scam texts to anyone within a 1-kilometer radius.
Once the portable cell tower connects to a nearby mobile device, it automatically downgrades the device’s connection to 2G (known as 2G fallback), which has weaker security and authorization.
The SMS is sent directly to the device without passing through the network provider’s security checks, thereby escaping detection. Worse, all of this happens in less than 10 seconds, so you won’t even notice that your network has been downgraded to 2G.
... continue reading