Shanghai police detained ten people using illegal base station for fraud and underground businesses in their latest crackdown this month, with 12 sets of devices seized, local officers said today.
Police said the messages sent via illegal base station by the suspects are related to telecom fraud, fake certificate making and prostitution service.
Starting this October, police noticed an increasing incidence of telecom fraud committed with illegal base station in the city. In Jiading District alone, more than 70 telecom fraud cases have been reported to police with an amount of over 500,000 yuan ($77,376) involved.
The victims told police that they received messages from some major bank's service number with a link of phishing sites, which were attached with Trojan horses. After they clicked the link and typed in their personal information such as bank account and password, their money in account was all transferred by the suspects.
This year local police have busted three telecom fraud gangs involved in illegal base station cases and nabbed 49 suspects. They also seized 33 sets of illegal base stations.
An illegal base station, often consists of a laptop, a special battery connecting cars and antennas, can transmit signals that break the normal connections of cellphone users and their service provider. It's always used to send spam messages or in telecom scams.
The source number of the messages can appear genuine — such as 10086 (China Mobile's service number), 95555 (China Merchants Bank's number) or the numbers of government departments so as to deceive those who receive them.
