GoKawiilIMSI/IMEI exposure explained after Canadian 'SMS blaster' arrests
Following the April 2026 arrest of three men in Canada for running a fake-tower 'SMS blaster' used to send phishing texts, BleepingComputer detailed how such devices and related IMSI catchers exploit phones' tendency to connect to the strongest signal before authentication occurs. This lets attackers capture a phone's IMSI (tied to the SIM) and IMEI (tied to the device), identifiers that largely remain constant and, on older 2G/3G and even initial 4G connections, can be transmitted in plaintext.