Toronto Busts SMS Blaster Scam, Arrests Suspects

0:00It's April 23rd. I'm Corey with The Story, and this is Canada News today. Local news powered by AI. Toronto police just busted a major cyber scam using a fake cell tower device that blasted out phony texts across the city. They call it Project Lighthouse. Canada's first big bust of this SMS blaster tech, which tricked thousands of phones into connecting and send fraud. It manages pretending to be from banks or services. Over 13 million network disruptions hit, messing with folks connections for months. The gadget popped up first in downtown Toronto back in November 2025, then bounced around the greater Toronto area. It mimicked real towers so smoothly that tens of thousands of devices latched on, letting scammers push their cons without a trace. These attacks didn't just spam inboxes. They jammed legit cell signals, even blocking 911 calls temporarily. People in the area felt the pinch with drop service and sketchy alerts that looked real

1:01enough to fool anyone. On March 31st, cops raided spots in Markham and Hamilton, grabbing devices and evidence. They nabbed two suspects right there, a third turned themselves in, and now all three face tons of fraud and mischief charges. Detectives say they've shut it down for good in Toronto. These are still hunting for victims and teaming up with orgs to track scam fallout, so stay sharp. Ignore shady links and never share info from random. Texts. This one's a wake up call on how deep these tech tricks go.