IMSI vs IMEI: What Your Phone Broadcasts and Who Can Read It
In April 2026, BleepingComputer reported that Canadian authorities arrested three men for operating an “SMS blaster,” a device that pretends to be a cell tower to send phishing texts to nearby phones. It’s a close cousin of the IMSI catcher, the fake-tower device used for surveillance. Both work by tricking phones into connecting to the strongest signal and sharing information before anything is authenticated. One of the main things a fake tower can collect this way is your IMSI, the
