A fraudster involved in a scheme targeting London Underground passengers with text message scams laundered £600,000 through gift cards. Four defendants received sentences on Tuesday for operating homemade ‘SMS blasters’ concealed in suitcases wheeled around the Tube network.
The Fraudulent Scheme
Passengers passing the devices received deceptive texts about failed parcel deliveries, prompting them to enter personal details via a malicious link. The goal was to drain victims’ bank accounts. While exact gains from the texting operation remain hard to pinpoint, ringleader Zhijia Fan, 48, personally profited over £100,000.
Prosecutor Alex Davidson noted that co-defendants Daoyan Shang, 20; Wan Hafiz, 41; and Gatis Lauks, 25, earned lesser amounts. Lauks handled the bulk of laundering by buying gift cards with stolen bank details, earning a 5% commission and netting about £30,000 overall.
Lauks’ Confession and Operations
After a ‘no comment’ police interview in May 2025, Lauks returned five days later to confess. Recruited in June or July 2024, he worked under Fan’s direction. A contact in China provided real-time technical support via an app loaded with stolen credentials for in-store gift card purchases.
Lauks could acquire up to 100 gift cards daily, including one instance of £8,000 worth from a UK retailer. The group redeemed cards for items like clothing, Pokemon cards, Louis Vuitton goods, and video games.
Fan instructed Lauks to deploy an SMS blaster in a suitcase, but battery problems halted it. Lauks also scouted the Paris Metro in France, deeming it unsuitable due to differing vulnerabilities compared to the UK.
Sentences and Judicial Remarks
Shang and Fan, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud between January and March 2025, received prison terms: Fan four years and eight months; Shang two years and ten months. Hafiz got 14 months for conspiracy to defraud and 10 weeks for possessing fraud tools, concurrent, plus deportation proceedings as a non-British national.
Lauks, who admitted fraud by false representation, earned a two-year suspended sentence for two years. Recorder Alex Stein described the operation as an ‘extremely sophisticated fraud’ with all participants fully aware. He noted tens of thousands of smishing messages sent, each an attempted or completed crime.
Fugitive Jinhua Zhang, 58, remains at large after fleeing bail.
Investigation Insights
Detective Inspector Tim Weekes of British Transport Police stated: “These organised scammers concealed SMS blasters in suitcases to plunder bank accounts of unsuspecting commuters. Their plot was foiled by a vigilant off-duty detective spotting a device at a London Tube station.”
Weekes credited collaboration with mobile operators like BT, Virgin Media, O2, Vodafone-Three, Sky, plus the National Cyber Security Centre and Ofcom for the robust case leading to guilty pleas.
Crown Prosecution Service’s Jonathan Kelleher added: “This sophisticated fraud, led by Zhijia Fan, tricked London Underground passengers into revealing details used to empty bank accounts. While Fan stayed distant, Daoyan Shang deployed the illegal devices impersonating cell towers and provided support. Hafiz learned deployment from Shang.”
Kelleher emphasized joint police-CPS efforts and plans to seize criminal proceeds. Victims of fraud should report to police for potential prosecution.
