Lancashire Man Sent to Prison for Operating Rogue UK Cell Phone Tower

The City of London Police (CLP) have revealed that Mohammed Faiyaz Iqbal (43) of Preston in Lancashire has been sentenced to more than 3 years and 8 months in prison for setting up a rogue cell phone tower, which was then used to bypass mobile network security protocols in order to send masses of fraudulent texts (aka – SMS Blaster).

For those who may be unfamiliar. SMS Blasters are essentially portable base stations (fake ones) that can be used to broadcast fraudulent text messages to nearby mobile phones by tricking them into connecting to it, rather than your legitimate mobile operator (this partly works by forcing connected mobiles to drop from secure 4G or 5G networks down to more vulnerable 2G signals).

The use of such an approach is effective because it bypasses all the usual security controls that real mobile operators use, which means that the SPAM or fraud texts never get blocked or marked as suspicious. On the flip side it does mean that the fraudster needs to be relatively close to their targets. Depending upon the location and setup, that could be anything from a few tens of metres and all the way up to around 1-2km.

The good news is that mobile network operators including EE (BT), O2, VodafoneThree and Sky Mobile, as well as the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Ofcom, have all recently been working with the police to help track down and identify those responsible.

Speaking of which, Mohammed Faiyaz Iqbal was arrested on 24th May 2024 while sitting in a van at the Trafford Shopping Centre car park, which was in the same vicinity as a large number of fraudulent SMS messages being transmitted to members of the public. The CLP soon uncovered multiple mobile phones in the front of the vehicle and an active SMS Blaster system concealed within purpose-built wooden compartments (this connected to power, Wi-Fi components and aerials on the roof).

The messages sent by Iqbal impersonated legitimate organisations, including Royal Mail, and were designed to trick recipients into providing payment and personal details, commonly referred to as “smishing“. Examination of Iqbal’s mobile phones also revealed 7,859 compromised payment card details. 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.

Iqbal pleaded guilty at his first hearing on 9 March 2026 and was sentenced on 28 August 2026 to three years and eight months’ imprisonment. The judge determined that the appropriate sentence was five years and six months, but this was reduced by one third in recognition of Iqbal’s guilty plea.

Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Little 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.”

Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud Prevention at O2 (Virgin Media), said:

“Keeping our customers and the public safe from fraud is a top priority, and we always stand ready to collaborate with law enforcement and our industry peers to ensure we disrupt scam networks and hold criminals to account.

While this conviction is a victory for fraud‑fighting efforts, it also shows the lengths perpetrators will go to in order to cause Brits financial and emotional harm. At Virgin Media O2, we’ve blocked more than 1 billion scam texts to date, but to help stop more scammers in their tracks we’re calling on everyone to report suspicious calls and texts for free to 7726.”

The arrest marked the first known instance of UK law enforcement encountering an SMS blaster. Since then, there have been other arrests and also additional successful prosecutions in London over the last year, with five criminals receiving sentences of more than 100 months behind bars.

Suffice to say this may be a relatively new problem for Police to tackle, but the tricky thing for the fraudsters is that, with the right kit, their radio signals can be accurately tracked and the source triangulated. The longer the fraudsters sit around to conduct the work, which is often necessary in order for the crime to be effective in a busy area, the greater their risk of being uncovered.