People cross a street in downtown Toronto during the morning commute on Aug. 22, 2024. The Canadian Press/Paige Taylor White
In November 2025, a cybersecurity partner quietly alerted Toronto police to an unusual occurrence on the streets of Canada’s largest city: a suspected rogue device operating in downtown Toronto, mimicking a legitimate cell tower and pushing fraudulent text messages to anyone nearby.
By the time search warrants were executed in Markham and Hamilton last month, investigators had documented tens of thousands of mobile devices connecting to an SMS blaster, along with more than 13 million network disruptions.
