Pair from Hong Kong arrested in Bangkok mall with tool for sending fake SMS messages
Police have arrested two men from Hong Kong with a sophisticated mobile tool for sending fake SMS (short message service) text messages to deceive victims into clicking malicious links.
Pol Maj Gen Sathit Prom-uthai, commander of Cyber Crime Investigation 3, announced on Tuesday that the arrest of the two suspects was made inside Siam Paragon mall at 6pm on Monday with cooperation from mobile-phone operator Advanced Info Service (AIS).
The two suspects were identified as Yip, 44, and Lee, 26.
Police say they found one of them carrying a heavy backpack that contained something called a mobile false base station, and four mobile phones.
A false base station, also known as a femtocell, is a device that can mimic legitimate cellphone towers.
Call-centre gangs can exploit a false base station to send fake SMS messages to cellular phones within range of the fake tower to lure receivers to click malicious links that, among other things, could allow the gang to seize control of the victims’ handsets remotely and steal from their bank accounts.
Sathit said his division was alerted by AIS that a possible mobile false base station was detected inside the shopping mall.
As a result, he dispatched police officers to check. Police noticed the pair of suspects walking together with one of them apparently carrying a heavy bag on his back.
Police monitored the pair for a while and saw them behaving in a suspicious manner, so officers identified themselves and asked to check the bag, where they found the false base station device.
Sathit explained that the device operated by linking to Wi-Fi signals from the two men’s mobile phones.
The suspects denied the charges, saying they had been asked by a friend to walk around with bag without knowing what were inside.
Sathit said the pair entered Thailand via the Sadao border checkpoint in the southern province of Songkhla on March 30. They were allowed to stay until April 28.
Sathit said the two were staying at a hotel in Bangkok’s Bang Rak district and they left their hotel at 9am on Monday, allegedly to visit large shopping malls to send fake SMS messages to deceive shoppers there.
Sathit said police would try to investigate whether the two had higher bosses or whether they worked for a gang.
They were charged with importing a communication device without permission, collaborating to set up a telecommunication station without permission, and using a telecommunication frequency without permission.
