Cybercriminals Have a Weird New Way to Target You With Scam Texts

Scammers are now using “SMS blasters” to send out up to 100,000 texts per hour to phones that are tricked into thinking the devices are cell towers. Your wireless carrier is powerless to stop them.

Cybercriminals have a new way of sending millions of scam text messages to people. Typically when fraudsters send waves of phishing messages to phones—such as toll or delivery scams—they may use a huge list of phone numbers and automate the sending of messages. But as phone companies and telecom services have rolled out more tools to detect scams in texts, criminals have started driving around cities with fake cell phone towers that send messages directly to nearby phones.