Google’s Trick to Reduce Fraudulent SMS and Misleading Advertising

Any means of communication created by humans will eventually be used, at some point or another, to try to scam as many people as possible. Physical letters are no exception, nor is email, and of course, SMS is no exception. In Europe it is common to receive an SMS from a bank where we do not have an account asking us to log in due to a security issue for example.

This type of SMS has only one purpose: try to extract as much data as possible from each user to extort them or sell said data then to a third. Numbers from which SMS are received can be blocked, but receiving SMS from new numbers cannot be prevented.

This is what scammers take advantage of, sometimes, bombard everyone in a specific area with fraudulent messagesTo do this, he places a transmitter that pretends to be a telephone antenna and allows surrounding mobile phones to connect to it, thus being able to send fraudulent SMS messages directly.

This is possible because these transmitters, placed in a backpack, They are able to attack via 2G networkwhich, due to the technology it uses, has many more security vulnerabilities than 3G, 4G or 5G network transmitters. Since the vast majority of mobile phones are designed to connect to one of these networks, fraudsters can have a direct connection with the terminals, thus bypassing the security measures of smartphones.

These transmitters, called Fake Base Stations (FBS) or Stingrays, They have been observed in countries such as Vietnam or Thailand, but also in others such as Norway or France. They simulate high-quality 5G networks so that surrounding devices connect and then, via the 2G connection, send SMS messages.

To avoid this type of attack, Android phones, since version 12 a few years ago, allow you to disable 2G coverage reception. This is possible in Europe because the quality of 3G and 4G networks is very wide, as well as their coverage. To do this, simply go to the Mobile settingsenter Networks and InternetSO Click on the SIM you want to modify and we disable the option Allow 2G. However, the 2G network will still be available for emergency calls. Of course, in the layers of different manufacturers, such as Samsung and HONOR, this option may not appear.