UK Cybercrime Journal: SMS Blaster Gang Convicted

Police in London investigated and secured convictions against individuals who used a portable SMS Blaster (an IMSI-catcher style device) to downgrade nearby phones to 2G and send spoofed SMS messages (impersonating HMRC) at scale; the report describes arrests, recovered communications, analyst commentary on the device's capability to bypass SMS safeguards and facilitate smishing campaigns, and defensive recommendations including reporting/blocking, moving away from SMS OTPs, and proactive domain takedowns.