Greek authorities arrested suspects and seized equipment after uncovering a mobile scam operation that used a fake cell tower housed in a car to broadcast phishing SMS messages across Athens. Law enforcement said the SMS‑blaster tactic can scale credential theft and social engineering campaigns and has appeared in multiple countries.

Greek police announced the dismantling of a mobile‑scam operation that employed a fake cell tower—an SMS‑blaster concealed in a vehicle—to broadcast phishing messages throughout parts of Athens. Investigators arrested several suspects and seized radio equipment, SIM cards, and signaling devices used to impersonate legitimate mobile infrastructure and push malicious links or credential‑harvesting prompts to targeted recipients. Authorities described the campaign as a hardware-based amplification of SMS phishing, allowing operators to flood local areas with spoofed messages that bypass some carrier controls and increase the reach of scams that solicit logins, two-factor codes, or payment details. Officials warned that similar tactics have surfaced internationally and can support coordinated social‑engineering schemes, account takeovers, and financial fraud. The case underscores emerging threats at the intersection of telecommunications abuse and cybercrime, prompting calls for tighter controls on radio equipment sales, stronger carrier filtering, and public awareness about unsolicited SMS that request credentials or immediate action.