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A scammer sent thousands of people fake Royal Mail texts requesting a ‘settlement’ fee for their parcel to be delivered. Mohammed Gulzar was caught with a ‘smishing’ kit when police raided his home in Birmingham.
The 22-year-old university student duped at least one elderly woman and spent more than £2,500 of her money after tricking her into inputting her Nationwide bank details into a bogus website. Although not everyone was fooled with one recipient replying to the scam text calling him a ‘lowlife scum’.
An investigation revealed he had access to more than 35,000 mobile numbers. Gulzar, of Nora Road, Sparkhill, admitted two counts of fraud and one count of possession of articles to be used for fraud.
On Friday, June 9, Birmingham Crown Court heard he turned to the scam when his physical health declined and he fell into financial difficulties. Gulzar, who attended the hearing using a walking aid, was sentenced to two years imprisonment suspended for two years.
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Prosecutor James Dunston said: “This case is essentially about smishing, a kind if phishing fraud by sending SMS texts.”
Police searched Gulzar’s previous address in May 2021 and seized an Alcatel phone. There were 3,949 messages in the outbox which had been sent between March 11 and April 17 that year.
The texts purported to be from Royal Mail with words to the effect of: ‘Your parcel is awaiting delivery, please confirm settlement’. They also contained a link to an authentic-looking Royal Mail website, which was fake.
Mr Dunston said one person replied to the message saying: “Does this usually work you **** go and provide some value to society you lowlife scum.”
The Alcatel phone also had a series of text files which contained 36,128 unique mobile numbers. Police seized an Apple phone, which had 12 sets of victim personal information on it, as well as two further SIM cards which had sent more than 40,000 messages between them in a matter of days.
The court was told Gulzar had also sent a message to a possible accomplice saying: “I bought 5,000 leads. 28 results. I’m spamming Royal Mail I have bought the page.”
In April a 76-year-old woman fell for the scam and put her Nationwide bank details into the bogus webpage. Gulzar spent £2,527.45 of her money and changed the contact telephone number on the account to his own.
He tried to spend a further £3,399.73 but the account was blocked. Gulzar called Nationwide purporting to be the real account holder to remove the block.
Haroon Khattak, defending, described the changing of the account phone number as a ‘foolish move’ because it left a trail back to him. He argued it showed Gulzar was ‘far from sophisticated’. The barrister said: “There is no justification for the offences. He was financially struggling, that was the motive.
“He is in particular ill-health. That one material change was his health issues. He is using an aid walker. I know there was some scepticism over his condition but it has been confirmed with his GP.”
Mr Khattak explained Gulzar had to leave his university course due to his health problems and added: “There is a letter from the defendant’s mother and family who say this was out of character. It is not the way he was brought up. His family are profusely apologetic for the impact on the victims.”
Gulzar was ordered to complete 24 days rehabilitation activity requirement as part of his sentence and pay £1,200 in costs.
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