Tube ‘SMS blaster’ gang jailed after off-duty detective foils £80k commuter scam
British Transport Police statement: A gang of fraudsters who used ‘SMS blasters’ to scam commuters out of thousands of pounds have been sentenced, following a British Transport Police (BTP) investigation.
Their plot was foiled by an off-duty BTP detective travelling through a London Tube station early last year.
Four men appeared at Inner London Crown Court on 24 February to be sentenced.
The head of the crime group Zhijia Fan, 48, of Winchester Street, Acton, was jailed for four years and eight months. His right-hand man Daoyan Shang, 20, of Caxton Road, Shepherd’s Bush, received two years and 10 months. And Wan Mohd Hafiz, 41, of Queensway, Paddington, was jailed for one year and two months.
All three men pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Defraud and Possession of Articles used in Fraud after they were charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Gatis Lauks, 25, and of no fixed address, was also sentenced for his role under Zhijia Fan. He received two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to Fraud by Misrepresentation.
The investigation was launched on 11 March 2025 when an off-duty BTP detective spotted a man sat on the Northern line platform at King’s Cross Underground station with suitcase perforated with holes and emitting a green flash.
BTP officers in the station were alerted to the suspicious item and responded to detain the man.
The suitcase was seized to be examined and inside was an SMS blaster – a device that masquerades as a legitimate cell tower and tricks nearby phones to connect to it. Once phones are connected to it, the device sends mass messages with links to fraudulent websites.
Two weeks later, on 25 March, a second SMS blaster was seized from Hafiz when BTP officers in plain clothes detained him at Baker Street Underground station. He had been sitting on the platform with the device, again concealed inside a large suitcase.
These devices were found to be sending messages to Tube passengers’ phone purporting to be from Royal Mail and Evri.
Messages would state packages could not be delivered and invited recipients to follow a link to input their personal details, which would then be used by the scammers to access bank accounts and extract money.
Intelligence developed by BTP detectives uncovered Fan and Shang as the pair orchestrating the fraud conspiracy. Both men were also arrested on 25 March – Fan in Acton, West London, and Shang at Baker Street Underground station.
The three men’s London properties were searched, and officers located key components used to build SMS blasters, including antennas and power units.
Also seized from the addresses were 10,832 gift cards loaded with over £80,000 in profits generated from their fraud plot.
Lauks’ role working for Fan was to purchase the gift cards using the bank details of fraud victims.
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