Remember the SMS Blasters that authorities warned about in August? They're small, portable devices that can go into backpacks even, and mimic actual cell towers that mobile phones connect to.
Clearly there was more to the story in August, as SMS Blasters were in New Zealand already at the time.
A 19-year-old man was arrested in central Auckland on August 23, and he had been using an SMS Blaster for smishing, the police say.
The SMS Blaster was found in a car with an inverter to power it:
What the man had done was to send fraudulent text messages that purported to be from banks. The messages tried to trick people into sharing or verifying sensitive information such as passwords or credit card details.
The police didn't say where the man had been operating, but he is thought to have sent thousands of scam messages. One night, he sent around 700 the police say.
Almost 120 people were affected the police say, but the dastardly SMS Blasting smisher didn't get manage to trick them out of money.
Long story short, smishing isn't going away so don't click on links in text messages, or provide any sensitive information such as login or credit card details.
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