Gucci Shoe Sim Farms: How Scammers Fund Their Lavish Lifestyles

“They don’t keep the money, they spend it here and now.”

Detective Inspector Paul Curtis shows us an evidence room filled with designer shoes and bags. Thousands of items are neatly stacked in plastic bins on wooden shelves.

Items here have been seized from financial scammers, some of whom send fraudulent text messages, known as smishing, to victims.

“They like to live a luxurious lifestyle,” Curtis says. “We have between 8,500 and 10,000 pieces of evidence in this room,” he says, something that is “the result of house searches and raids” carried out by agents.

The smell of fresh leather goods fills the air. Brightly colored Gucci stilettos draw attention from a distance; It’s a treasure trove of top-brand kits worth tens of thousands of pounds.

These purchases are an indication of how much money they make from their crimes and what they spend it on.

The term “smishing” is a combination of “SMS” or “short message service” (the technology behind text messages) and “phishing.”

Scammers send fake text messages, apparently from a bank or other trusted company, to trick people into revealing personal information such as passwords and PIN numbers. The intention is to defraud them of their money.

Curtis is part of the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit, a team made up of officers from the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police service.

Although they are London police forces, the unit has national powers and is sponsored by the banking industry. It focuses on the fight against financial fraud.

“In a recent smishing case of ours, the defendant was sentenced for sending 15,000 messages in a five-day period. That was the equivalent of earning £100,000 a month,” he says.

The senior officer was talking about Ruichen Xiong, a student from China who was convicted of the crime after driving around London in March this year, sending messages to tens of thousands of potential victims.

Xiong was sentenced to 58 weeks in prison at Inner London Crown Court in June after pleading guilty to representation fraud.

According to Ofcom, half of UK mobile users said they received a suspicious message between November 2024 and February 2025 via text message or iMessage.

Gideon Rabinowitz, 64, lives in Newbury, Berkshire, and has been a recent victim of smishing.

Just two months ago, the former IT director said he was scammed out of more than £1,000 after receiving a fraudulent text message.

“I felt like a fool, like I’d been raped,” he says.

“It really shook me up. For several days, it really left me quite shaken. I felt very vulnerable and I don’t know who to trust now.”

Mr. Rabinowitz was led to believe that his bank was contacting him to inform him of a suspicious payment on his account.

In reality, a scammer was sending him a message.

“It started with an unexpected text message asking me if I recognized a transaction, yes or no. Two and a half hours later, I was £1,400 out of pocket.”

He adds: “Partly it was about the money and also the feeling of having been defrauded, of being admired, because these people knew who I was. They knew where I live.”

Scam text messages often pretend to be from large companies, such as utility companies, banks, or supermarkets. They usually include a link. Once the person clicks on it, they may be sent to a fraudulent website and asked for personal and financial information. The information can then be used to convince them to transfer money from your account.

Smishing is mainly done through two devices; a Sim farm containing multiple Sim cards, allowing criminals to bombard people with thousands of fraudulent text messages.

The second is what is called SMS Blaster. It tricks nearby mobile phones into connecting with it and then sends a large number of fraudulent text messages in a matter of seconds.

The government says “smishing scams have a devastating impact on their victims.”

“Our Telecommunications Charter sets out clear measures to protect SMS and reduce fraud across the telecommunications sector.”

“We are also banning Sim farms. Banning these devices used to send thousands of fraudulent text messages will shut down a key tool for criminals and protect consumers,” it says.

The ban is expected to take effect late next year. It will make it illegal to own or supply Sim farms, without a specific reason.

A cyber expert said smishing was a difficult crime to solve and there needed to be more education about fraudulent text messages.

“Smishing itself is very difficult to control because a lot of it comes from overseas and, even when done within the UK, it is very easy to do and difficult to trace,” says Ciaran Martin, former chief executive of the National Cyber ​​Security Centre.

“So while police can sometimes disrupt large operations, we should not consider police as the strategic response to this.

“The strategic answer is for people to understand that serious companies don’t ask you for money by text, and for companies to find better ways to interact with customers and verify that interaction.”

The police advice is simple: don’t click on links in any unsolicited messages you receive.

If you believe you are a victim of fraud, please inform Action Fraud, inform your bank and forward the message to 7726 so mobile networks can investigate further.

For more information go to bbc.co.uk/scamsafe where you can find a selection of resources

If you have been scammed or defrauded, help and support details are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline