LONDON — UK police have revealed thousands of luxury designer goods seized from criminals running large-scale “smishing” scams, as authorities warn that text-message fraud is becoming increasingly sophisticated and difficult to trace.
Inside an evidence room stacked with up to 10,000 seized items, Detective Chief Inspector Paul Curtis points to shelves filled with Gucci stilettos, handbags, and fresh leather goods — all bought with money stolen from unsuspecting victims.
“They don’t keep money, they spend it here and now,” Curtis says, describing the lavish lifestyle many fraudsters try to maintain. The items were collected during house searches and raids targeting organized financial-fraud networks.
Smishing combines SMS messaging with phishing tactics. Fraudsters send texts pretending to be from trusted organizations — banks, government agencies, delivery companies — to trick victims into revealing sensitive information such as passwords or PINs.
Once a victim clicks the link in a fake message, they are directed to a fraudulent site designed to steal their data or persuade them to transfer money.
Curtis works with the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit, a national taskforce backed by the banking industry and staffed by officers from the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police.
He says one smishing offender recently sent 15,000 scam texts over five days, earning nearly £100,000 a month.
That offender, Chinese student Ruichen Xiong, drove around London with a device capable of blasting thousands of fraudulent messages. He was sentenced to 58 weeks in prison in June after pleading guilty to fraud.
According to Ofcom, half of UK mobile users reported receiving a suspicious text between November 2024 and February 2025.
One recent victim, 64-year-old Gideon Rabinowitz from Berkshire, says he lost more than £1,400 after receiving a text that appeared to be from his bank.
“I felt like a massive fool, like I’d been violated,” he says.
“It really shook me… I don’t know who to trust now.”
The scam began with a text asking whether he recognized a transaction.
Two and a half hours later, his money was gone.
“These people knew who I was. They knew where I live,” he says, describing the emotional impact beyond the financial loss.
Authorities say two devices are primarily used:
1. SIM farms
Machines that hold dozens of SIM cards and send out massive volumes of messages simultaneously.
2. SMS Blasters
Devices that trick nearby phones into connecting with them, allowing scammers to push out fraudulent texts in seconds.
The UK government describes smishing as having “a devastating impact on victims” and says it is banning SIM farmsby late next year, making their possession or supply illegal without a legitimate purpose.
Cybersecurity expert Ciaran Martin, former chief of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, says smishing is extremely hard to police — especially when scams originate abroad.
“Serious businesses don’t ask you for money by text,” he says, urging the public to be more cautious.
