Four men have been sentenced for their roles in a sophisticated text message scam that targeted London Underground passengers. The fraudsters used homemade 'SMS blasters' hidden in suitcases to send fake parcel delivery alerts, tricking commuters into revealing their bank details.
Inner London Crown Court heard that Gatis Lauks, 25, laundered approximately £600,000 by purchasing gift cards with stolen bank account details, earning a 5% commission. He confessed to police in May 2025, revealing he was recruited in June or July 2024 and could buy up to 100 gift cards per day.
Prosecutor Alex Davidson said 'top boss' Zhijia Fan, 48, personally benefited more than £100,000 from the scheme. Fan was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison. Co-defendants Daoyan Shang, 20, and Wan Hafiz, 41, received sentences of two years and ten months and 14 months respectively.
The court heard that Lauks was also tasked with wheeling an SMS blaster on the Paris Metro, but the idea was abandoned because France 'did not have the same vulnerabilities' as the UK. Another suspect, Jinhua Zhang, 58, remains at large after fleeing while on bail.
Sentencing the four men, Recorder Alex Stein described the operation as an 'extremely sophisticated fraud' in which all defendants were 'knowing participants'. Detective Inspector Tim Weekes of British Transport Police said the plot was foiled by an off-duty detective who spotted the device at a London Tube station.
