Submitted 6 days ago by floofloof@lemmy.ca to technology@lemmy.world
https://tedium.co/2025/09/23/secret-service-raid-sim-bank-telecom-hardware/
cross-posted from: lemmy.bestiver.se/post/636119
Yeah those things have been around a while. Web scrapers and sneaker bot operators are fond of them. Sometimes they run racks full of real phones so they can put downloaded phone apps on them for nefarious purposes, instead of having to try to fool the apps with virtualization.
The thing about shutting down the cell network sounds like alarmism unless there was something unusual that they weren’t saying.
SPAM MACHINE
Yes, these are all SIM cards.
More images from the article: all the SIMs, same machine at half capacity.
Why does this exist? The manufacturers are not criminals? Are there legal usecases?
According to the article, even AliBaba thinks this is somewhat fishy - but still sells it.
I’m not sure about the legality. To me this feels like the differences between having one fuel canister in your garage, or 100.
This looks like the gear normally used by gangs that do text spam scams, what makes this exactly out of the range for a run of the mill criminal syndicate? Unless they have some other information that they’re not sharing?
Yeah the part about overwhelming emergency services just seems like fearmongering to me.
Yet another take: open.substack.com/…/that-secret-service-sim-farm-…
I see two potential uses: spam and scam on one side, and DDOSing the cellular network on the other.
I rather suspect the second.
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aramova@infosec.pub 6 days ago
I strongly believe a lot of the reporting is hyperbole.
If you’re going to run an offshore call center for spam, and domestic carriers are locking you out, this is how you’d get around it.
Those texts you get “Hey remember that movie on Thursday?” to bait you into a convo?
Those calls from the IRS telling you to send $2500 in Walmart gift cards?
Those can all come from these en mass.
And the best spot to put them is in ultra dense areas where millions of people live to fly under the radar.
They can have thousands and thousands of SIMs, rotate IMEIs, those can as far as I’m aware bridge physical devices from anywhere and make them appear as though they’re here.
Think fake reviews, fake social media, social media bots, scam call center operations, etc.
Could they overload a region? Sure, just like a football game, or major event when everyone calls at once.
That’s not why you’d have all those sims though.
GreenShimada@lemmy.world 6 days ago
I was going to bring up the Interpol bust all around Africa of SIM farms that is referenced in this article. Usually all about international calling and for scammers to use.
Reporting on this said that this setup had been involved with nation-state level threats. I wonder if it’s that these spammers were just doing their spam stuff and have all their stuff automated to sell bandwidth. Like you just send them a CSV with numbers and messages, and they don’t care what the content is. So then nation-state just books a few campaigns that are what kick off an FBI/Secret Service investigation because the nation-state isn’t actually affiliated with the spammers.
This setup is worth a ton of money just chugging along, and realistically, this is not built to overwhelm a few key mobile towers. These things are built to spam and scam.