Police arrest SMS blaster crew that sent malicious messages to thousands across Toronto
Key takeaways
- Police have arrested and brought 44 charges against three men for allegedly operating an SMS blaster in downtown Toronto.
- In a statement, the Toronto Police Service said it believes tens of thousands of devices were blasted with spammy text messages over several months.
- SMS blasters work by spoofing cell towers and broadcasting a stronger signal than other towers in range in order to trick nearby cell phones and tablets into connecting with the blaster.
Police have arrested and brought 44 charges against three men for allegedly operating an SMS blaster in downtown Toronto. The scheme, which began in November 2025, is the first known instance of an SMS blaster operating in Canada, according to the police report.
In a statement, the Toronto Police Service said it believes tens of thousands of devices were blasted with spammy text messages over several months.
SMS blasters work by spoofing cell towers and broadcasting a stronger signal than other towers in range in order to trick nearby cell phones and tablets into connecting with the blaster. Once connected to nearby devices, an SMS blaster can send out thousands of text messages, which may contain links to phishing sites that impersonate login pages of legitimate businesses. Such devices exploit security weaknesses in older 2G cellular networks to send these messages.