Fake base stations can now be detected and handled in real time.

There is a technological solution to detect and handle in real time subjects using fake transceiver stations to impersonate financial and banking organization messages to defraud users.

Recently, many mobile subscribers have received text messages impersonating financial institutions and banks to send fake, fraudulent content aimed at stealing people's money.

Regarding this issue, the Information Security Department said that impersonating financial institutions and banks to send fake messages and scam users recently has been spread by bad guys through fake mobile broadcasting devices (BTS). Therefore, when users receive these fake messages and then access fraudulent websites, they will be lured into providing personal information such as accounts, passwords, OTP codes, etc. and perform money transfers without knowing it.

According to security experts, there are some possibilities of forging brandname messages from banks and e-wallets such as: Hackers exploit and take advantage of services providing brandname messages; Hackers rent SMS service servers and forge brandnames to send messages to subscribers; or the victim's phone is installed with malware and then the malware will insert fake messages into the messaging streams on the device...

According to the representative of the Information Security Department, through verification and assessment, it was found that these fake messages did not originate from the systems of financial institutions, banks and telecommunications enterprises, but were spread through fake mobile broadcasting devices (IMSI Catcher/SMS Broadcaster).

“These are devices originating from abroad, illegally bought, sold and used by subjects for the purpose of carrying out attacks to spread spam messages to scam users, especially users in urban areas,” said a representative of the Department of Information Security.

These messages are changed by the subjects with the source information (phone number, prefix or identifier) for the purpose of creating trust and deceiving users. The content of the messages is often advertising, instructing or containing links to fake websites that look like the official websites of financial institutions and banks to lure and steal user information such as accounts, passwords, OTP codes, etc.

Next, the user does not recognize the fake website, so they will provide personal information to access the bank account such as entering the account name and password. After the user provides the information, the fake website will redirect to another website or notify the user to wait. At this time, the subject will use the user's personal information to log in to the official website of the financial institution or bank to get the OTP authentication code (if needed).

In the final step, after the user's phone receives the OTP authentication code, the fake website will be redirected to a state asking the user to provide the OTP authentication code. The user, without being vigilant, will provide the OTP code information for the subject to complete the process of appropriating money in the account.

The subjects put fake BTS devices on vehicles, moving and stopping continuously during the process of spreading spam and scam messages.

The reason these subjects can use fake BTS is because this is a loophole in 2G technology, each time broadcasting using a fake BTS, bad subjects can launch a series of messages to mobile users within a radius of several hundred meters. These messages can be messages advertising prohibited services such as online gambling, or messages containing fraudulent content, luring users to access fake links to steal personal information.

At the meeting of the Banking Association in 2022, banks spoke out about the widespread situation of fake bank brand messages (SMS brandname), thereby affecting the reputation of banks. Banks had to spend a large amount of money on communication to warn customers to identify and avoid risks related to scammers via text messages. In addition, banks have also encouraged customers to switch to using digital banking utilities and using transaction authentication via Smart OTP.

However, the situation of customers being scammed through this form continues. In response to this problem, a representative of Viettel Net said that Viettel has introduced a technology solution to detect in real time subjects using fake transceiver stations to impersonate financial institutions and banks to scam users.

“Initially, these subjects placed fake BTS stations at a fixed location to broadcast signals. However, recently, to avoid being caught by authorities, these subjects have put fake BTS devices on vehicles, moving and stopping continuously during the process of spreading spam and scam messages. However, with the current solution, it is possible to detect immediately when the scammers turn on fake broadcasting devices and can coordinate with authorities to capture these subjects as quickly as possible,” said a representative of Viettel Net.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phuc, Director of the Department of Telecommunications, said that the Ministry of Information and Communications is coordinating with the functional agencies of the Ministry of Public Security to investigate and handle fake BTS stations. This is one of six solutions implemented simultaneously to deal with the situation of spam messages, scam messages, and spam calls.

The Ministry of Information and Communications will coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security to investigate and handle subjects using fake BTS stations to spread spam and scam messages.

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