A joint operation by the Philippine National Police – Anti-Cybercrime Group, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), the Bureau of Immigration (BI), and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) led to the arrest of a supplier of International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) catcher.
The suspect, a Malaysian national identified as Thiang Choon Wee, is believed to be the head of a syndicate that has been supplying IMSI catchers used in text scams, CICC said.
“This government, especially the Filipino people, will not allow us to be played by foreign scammers. We will fight this,” CICC executive director Alexander Ramos said.
“CICC started monitoring the company of the IMSI supplier in October last year. “We patiently waited for the big fish to surface before we conducted the operation,” Ramos said.
An IMSI catcher is an electronic device that tracks and intercepts mobile phone communications. It is also referred to as “Stingray”, rogue cell tower, fake cell tower, cell site simulator or drop boxes.
IMSI catchers work by mimicking an official cell tower and convincing nearby phones that the IMSI catcher should connect them.
Once connected, this allows it to collect their IMSI number which enables it to track location and activity as well as intercept text messages, calls and data traffic of target phones.
CICC has discovered that IMSI catchers have been used in text scams.
