A fraudster who pretended to be from Royal Mail in a sophisticated mobile phone scam has been jailed in one of the first cases of its kind.
Mohammed Faiyaz Iqbal, 43, bombarded nearby phone users with messages claiming to be from several companies.
He aimed to trick recipients into providing payment and personal details, with his victims believing they were communicating with legitimate organisations.
A typical message read: 'Sorry we missed you as no one was home to sign your parcel.'
It then told recipients to 'rearrange a redelivery to your home address please visit' the fraudulent website, and said payment may be required.
Iqbal used a so-called 'SMS blaster' – specialist technology used to bypass phone networks' anti-spam protections and send out texts en masse without obtaining the victims' numbers.
It meant Iqbal was able to target potentially hundreds of people, in close proximity, simultaneously.
He was stopped when detectives searched his van at the Trafford Centre in Manchester after becoming suspicious of the large number of fraudulent text messages being sent from the area on May 24 2024.
Fraudster Mohammed Faiyaz Iqbal, from Preston, has been jailed after using a sophisticated 'SMS blaster' to target mobile phone users
Officers searching his van at the Trafford Centre in Manchester found the technology hidden within wooden panels
KIt meant Iqbal, 43, was able to send hundreds of messages to nearby mobile phones by using the technology, circumventing mobile phone masts which may have stopped the scam in its tracks
One of the text messages Iqbal spammed mobile phones with
Iqbal used sophisticated technology to bombard mobile phones with messages which he used to scam people
He was jailed for three years and eight months after admitting one count of fraud by false representation, one count of possession of articles for use in fraud, one count of acquiring and possessing criminal property, one count of possession of false identity documents, and one count of unauthorised use of wireless telegraphy apparatus.
City of London Police, who were involved in the investigation, said this was the first known case of discovering an SMS blaster in the UK as part of a criminal investigation.
Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Little, from the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit, said: 'This case demonstrates the evolving nature of fraud and the lengths offenders will go to in order to target victims at scale.
'The seizure of this equipment is a significant step in disrupting emerging threats that seek to bypass established telecommunications safeguards.
'We will continue to work closely with partners across banking and telecommunications to identify, pursue and bring to justice those responsible for committing fraud.'
Iqbal, of Preston in Lancashire, was sitting in his van at the Trafford Centre when he was stopped by police.
A search uncovered multiple mobile phones in the front of the vehicle.
In the rear of the van, officers located an SMS blaster system concealed within purpose-built wooden compartments.
The equipment included power sources, Wi-Fi components and aerials installed into the roof of the vehicle, City of London Police said.
The devices were turned on and actively being used in conjunction with applications on mobile phones.
The equipment acted as a rogue mobile antenna, bypassing telecommunications network security and broadcasting SMS messages directly to nearby devices.
Examination of Iqbal's mobile phones revealed 7,859 compromised payment card details, detectives said.
Further searches at his home address uncovered additional compromised banking material and three counterfeit UK driving licences, which were being used to set up impersonation bank accounts to launder criminal proceeds.
The conviction was achieved thanks to the police working with mobile network operators, the National Cyber Security Centre and Ofcom.