Greek police arrest scammers using fake cell tower hidden in car trunk

Greek police have taken down a mobile scam operation that used a fake cell tower hidden inside a car to send phishing messages to unsuspecting phone users across the Athens metropolitan area, authorities said last week.

According to a statement from the Hellenic Police, the suspects are accused of forging identity documents, carrying out fraud and illegally accessing information systems as part of an organized criminal group.

Officers stopped the suspects for a check in the Spata area east of Athens following reports of suspicious behavior. During the inspection, the suspects allegedly presented forged identity documents. A subsequent search of their vehicle uncovered a mobile computing system hidden in the trunk and connected to a roof-mounted transmitter disguised as a shark-fin antenna.

Authorities said the setup functioned as a rogue mobile base station — often called an SMS blaster — allowing it to mimic legitimate telecom infrastructure and send mass scam messages. The device forced nearby mobile phones to connect to the suspects’ system and downgraded them from 4G to the less-secure 2G network, exploiting long-known vulnerabilities.

Once connected, the attackers were able to harvest identifying data such as phone numbers and then send scam text messages posing as banks or courier companies. The messages contained phishing links that lured victims into entering payment card details and other sensitive information, which were later used to carry out unauthorized transactions, police said.

So far, investigators have linked the group to at least three fraud cases in Maroussi, Spata and Athens, but authorities said the investigation is ongoing and the full scope of the operation remains unclear. The suspects have been brought before a public prosecutor.

Police have not disclosed the suspects’ identities, but local media reported that they are Chinese nationals.

SMS blaster attacks have previously been reported in Thailand, Indonesia, Qatar and the United Kingdom, where authorities have described near-identical setups involving fake base stations hidden inside vehicles and driven through densely populated areas.

In August, Thai police arrested two men who admitted they were hired by a Chinese handler to send thousands of phishing messages per day using a mobile telecom rig concealed in a car. Earlier this year, a Chinese student in London was sentenced to more than a year in prison for operating an SMS blaster while driving through the city.

Commenting on the Greek case, telecom risk-monitoring site Commsrisk said images released by police showed a DC-to-AC power converter made by Chinese manufacturer NFA — equipment that has appeared in SMS blaster cases across Europe and Asia.

“There is nothing illegal about making and selling power converters,” Commsrisk said, “but the repeated use of the same manufacturer’s equipment by Chinese criminals across a wide range of countries suggests common supply chains are enabling the intercontinental spread of SMS blaster crime.”