Chinese student who used a phone mast ‘blaster’ in car to send HMRC scam texts to thousands is jailed

A Chinese student has been jailed for using a portable phone mast to blitz every nearby mobile phone with scam texts from the taxman.

Scammer Ruichen Xiong, 22, drove around London in his black Honda CR-V with the “SMS blaster” in the boot.

It then sent mass “smishing” messages to tens of thousands of potential victims to obtain their confidential private or banking details.

Handsets of passers-by were tricked into connecting with Xiong’s fake device on a 2G network - which appeared to have a stronger signal - instead of legitimate phone towers between March 22 and 27 this year.

Photos show the bulky gadget in his vehicle and mast on the Honda’s roof.

As police went to arrest Xiong in east London, an officer’s phone received a text claiming to be from HM Revenue and Customs asking him for details to process a refund.

Xiong was caught by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit, a collaboration between UK Finance and the City of London and Metropolitan Police forces.

They worked with operators including BT, Virgin Media O2, Vodafone, Three and Sky as well as the National Cyber Security Centre and Ofcom.

Ruichen Xiong’s portable phone mast worked on a fake 2G network to fool handsets (Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit)

The DCPCU have separately arrested seven people and seized several SMS blasters.

At Inner London Crown Court last Thursday Xiong, of Makers Yard, Bow, was sentenced to 58 weeks having pleaded guilty to fraud by representation.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Curtis said: “Criminals are sophisticated and will continuously make attempts to bypass fraud prevention measures designed to protect consumers.

“They’ll make every attempt to steal personal and financial information so it’s important that customers are alert to potential threats of fraud, particularly text messages.

“It’s important to stay alert to potential fraudulent messages, looking for personal and financial information.

“If consumers think they’ve been scammed, it’s important to contact their bank immediately and report it to Action Fraud.”

Murray Mackenzie, Virgin Media O2’s director of fraud prevention, added the firm blocked more than 168 million fraudulent texts from reaching customer and flagged over 50m suspected scam calls each month.

He said: “However, as this conviction shows, criminals will stop at nothing when targeting the public.”