Canadian police have arrested three men tied to what authorities are calling a first-of-its-kind fraudulent text scam in the country, one they warn “highlights an emerging threat to both public safety and financial security.”
The scheme involved a device the Toronto Police Service identified as an SMS blaster. According to police, this device mimics legitimate cell towers, tricking nearby mobile phones into connecting automatically with it. Once connected, the SMS blaster can send out fraudulent texts that appear to come from trusted institutions like banks or service providers. Those messages often include links to websites designed to fool victims into handing over personal information including financial credentials and passwords.
Schemes like this aren’t entirely new. Similar devices have been used in other countries in recent years, including the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and Greece. But Toronto police say this is the first known case involving the technology in Canada.
“What makes this particularly concerning is the scale and impact,” Deputy Chief Rob Johnson said at a press conference on April 23. “This wasn’t targeting a single individual or business. It had the ability to reach thousands of devices at once. And beyond the financial risk, there are real public safety implications.”
Police said that when phones connect to these rogue devices and are diverted from legitimate networks, it can interfere with a victim’s ability to make calls including reaching emergency services.
Toronto police began investigating the scheme in November 2025 after being alerted by a security partner about a suspected SMS blaster operating in downtown Toronto. The investigation, which involved coordination with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s National Cybercrime Coordination Centre, York Regional Police, and Hamilton police, eventually determined the devices were mobile and being operated out of the back of vehicles.
“We believe tens of thousands of devices were connected to the blaster over several months,” Detective Sergeant Lindsay Riddell said at the press conference. “We also identified more than 13 million network disruptions where devices were unable to properly connect to legitimate cell towers. That is significant because during those moments, access to services like 911 could be impacted.”
Police executed search warrants last month that led to the arrests of two men. A third man turned himself in last week. The three men have been collectively charged with 44 offenses, including fraud and mischief.
“This is a clear example of how cyber-enabled crime is becoming more advanced, more mobile, and more difficult to detect and why policing must continue to evolve alongside it,” Johnson said.
Police say they are confident the threat posed by the SMS blaster in Toronto is no longer ongoing. Still, they are urging the public to remain vigilant, avoid clicking on links from unsolicited text messages, and to come forward if they believe they were a victim of the scam. Authorities have not yet determined how much money may have been lost in the scheme.
