Four jailed after Acton man led ‘SMS blaster’ Tube scam

A gang of four fraudsters, led by a mastermind from Acton and an accomplice from Shepherd’s Bush, have been sentenced for using ‘SMS blasters’ hidden in suitcases to scam thousands of pounds from Tube commuters.

Their plot was foiled by an off-duty British Transport Police (BTP) detective travelling through a London Tube station early last year.

The men appeared at Inner London Crown Court on 24th February to be sentenced.

The head of the crime group Zhijia Fan, 48, of Winchester Street, Acton, was jailed for four years and eight months. His right-hand man Daoyan Shang, 20, of Caxton Road, Shepherd’s Bush, received two years and 10 months. And Wan Mohd Hafiz, 41, of Queensway, Paddington, was jailed for one year and two months.

All three men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and possession of articles used in fraud after they were charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Gatis Lauks, 25, and of no fixed address, was also sentenced for his role under Zhijia Fan. He received two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to fraud by misrepresentation.

The investigation was launched on 11th March 2025 when an off-duty BTP detective spotted a man sat on the Northern line platform at King’s Cross Underground station with a suitcase perforated with holes and emitting a green flash.

BTP officers in the station were alerted to the suspicious item and responded to detain the man.

The suitcase was seized to be examined and inside was an SMS blaster – a device that masquerades as a legitimate cell tower and tricks nearby phones to connect to it. Once phones are connected to it, the device sends mass messages with links to fraudulent websites.

Two weeks later, on 25th March, a second SMS blaster was seized from Hafiz when BTP officers in plain clothes detained him at Baker Street Underground station. He had been sitting on the platform with the device, again concealed inside a large suitcase.

These devices were found to be sending messages to Tube passengers’ phone purporting to be from Royal Mail and Evri.

Messages would state packages could not be delivered and invited recipients to follow a link to input their personal details, which would then be used by the scammers to access bank accounts and extract money.

Intelligence developed by BTP detectives uncovered Fan and Shang as the pair orchestrating the fraud conspiracy. Both men were also arrested on 25th March – Fan in Acton and Shang at Baker Street Underground station.

The three men’s London properties were searched, and officers located key components used to build SMS blasters, including antennas and power units.

Also seized from the addresses were 10,832 gift cards loaded with over £80,000 in profits generated from their fraud plot.

Lauks’ role working for Fan was to purchase the gift cards using the bank details of fraud victims.

BTP Detective Inspector Tim Weekes said: “These organised scammers concealed SMS blasters in suitcases in a bid to plunder the bank accounts of unsuspecting commuters.

“Their plot to defraud passengers was foiled by one of our vigilant detectives who was off duty when he spotted the device at a London Tube station.

“An extensive investigation followed, drawing on specialists from across BTP, and we built a case so robust the gang had no choice but to plead guilty.

“These convictions were achieved thanks to the close work our detectives undertook with mobile network operators including BT, Virgin Media, O2, and Vodafone-Three, Sky, as well as the National Cyber Security Centre and Ofcom."

Jonathan Kelleher from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This was a sophisticated fraud led by Zhijia Fan to get London Underground passengers to disclose personal details which the gang would then use to access and most certainly empty their bank accounts.

“While Fan maintained a physical distance, Daoyan Shang would accompany the SMS blasters, a portable and an illegal device used to impersonate a legitimate cellular tower and forcing nearby mobile phones to connect, onto the Underground and provide technical support in case they malfunctioned. Hafiz was shown by Shang how to deploy the devices.

“This case shows the effective and collaborative work of the British Transport Police and the Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS will now seek to recover their proceeds of crime to ensure these offenders do not benefit from their criminal conduct.

“If you feel you have been a victim of a fraudulent attack, please report this to the police and we will always look to prosecute cases whenever there is the evidence to do so.”

This article was published by the British Transport Police on 24/02/2026 and can be viewed at https://www.btp.police.uk/news/btp/news/in-the-courts/scammers-sentenced-for-sms-blaster-tube-plot--london/