Warning: Scammers trick Australians by sending more than 80 million fake texts
- Replies 11
In an age where our mobile phones are an extension of our lives, it's disheartening to learn that the convenience of instant communication is being exploited by unscrupulous scammers.
Case in point: A recent crackdown on a large-scale scam operation that has affected many Australians, including those in our community.
A Current Affair recently joined forces with the NSW State Crime Command's Cybercrime Unit to investigate a massive texting scam operation that sent out over 80 million fake text messages in the past five months.
The operation led to a dawn raid on two residential towers in Sydney's Southwest.
The target? Operators of Subscriber Identity Module boxes, or SIM boxes, which are capable of flooding telco networks with millions of fraudulent text messages.
Detective Superintendent Matt Craft, who headed the Cybercrime Squad, said the Burwood raid aimed to dismantle the SIM boxes to prevent them from sending further scam messages.
'This has been several years in the making…search warrant number five for us in relation to this particular investigation,' Superintendent Craft said.
The raid resulted in two secured apartments, three men in custody, and the seizure of three SIM boxes along with hundreds of SIM cards.
The police believe they have uncovered a sophisticated racket.
'This has been a meticulously planned operation... it's seen as a major breakthrough in a cybercrime investigation into a massive SMS phishing scam,' Superintendent Craft added.
The bogus texts appeared to have been sent by legitimate companies such as MyGov, the Commonwealth Bank, Australia Post, or Toll, and were composed on a computer and then sent out through the SIM boxes.
The three Chinese nationals who were taken into custody now face various state and Commonwealth charges, which include using equipment connected to a network to commit serious offences and dealing with identification information to commit indictable offences.
The Cybercrime Squad continues to work tirelessly to track down the SIM boxes shipped into Australia from overseas.
Detective Sergeant Paul Apthorpe explained that the SIM boxes work 24 hours, seven days a week, to distribute millions of scams.
He showed one SIM box with 64 aerials—equivalent to 64 mobile phones.
'So each of these can send them out between one to five seconds times 64 times however long it's operating,' he explained.
In an attempt to stop the text messages from these machines, detectives are collaborating closely with Australian telcos. However, as soon as one site is shut down, another one appears.
Even though most smartphone users are alert to fraudulent texts, a small percentage of unsuspecting users still fall for the tricks and provide personal information.
Information obtained from unsuspecting users is then sold on the dark web.
'If you receive a text, treat it with absolute suspicion, legitimate businesses do not interact with their customers via text messages…they just don't do it,' Superintendent Craft advised.
The three men will appear in court on Friday, and if found guilty, they could spend up to ten years in prison.
In similar news, a man from Sydney was charged for allegedly sending over 17 million scam texts and impersonating well-known businesses such as Australia Post and Linkt.
The texts allegedly directed unsuspecting victims to fake websites for financial gain.
The 39-year-old man was apprehended at a Moorebank address in Sydney's Southwest in December.
You can read more about this here.
Have you received a scam text recently? Share your experiences and help raise awareness in our community.
Case in point: A recent crackdown on a large-scale scam operation that has affected many Australians, including those in our community.
A Current Affair recently joined forces with the NSW State Crime Command's Cybercrime Unit to investigate a massive texting scam operation that sent out over 80 million fake text messages in the past five months.
The operation led to a dawn raid on two residential towers in Sydney's Southwest.
Scammers allegedly sent out over 80 million fake texts in the past five months. Image source: Shutterstock.
The target? Operators of Subscriber Identity Module boxes, or SIM boxes, which are capable of flooding telco networks with millions of fraudulent text messages.
Detective Superintendent Matt Craft, who headed the Cybercrime Squad, said the Burwood raid aimed to dismantle the SIM boxes to prevent them from sending further scam messages.
'This has been several years in the making…search warrant number five for us in relation to this particular investigation,' Superintendent Craft said.
The raid resulted in two secured apartments, three men in custody, and the seizure of three SIM boxes along with hundreds of SIM cards.
The police believe they have uncovered a sophisticated racket.
'This has been a meticulously planned operation... it's seen as a major breakthrough in a cybercrime investigation into a massive SMS phishing scam,' Superintendent Craft added.
The bogus texts appeared to have been sent by legitimate companies such as MyGov, the Commonwealth Bank, Australia Post, or Toll, and were composed on a computer and then sent out through the SIM boxes.
The three Chinese nationals who were taken into custody now face various state and Commonwealth charges, which include using equipment connected to a network to commit serious offences and dealing with identification information to commit indictable offences.
The Cybercrime Squad continues to work tirelessly to track down the SIM boxes shipped into Australia from overseas.
Detective Sergeant Paul Apthorpe explained that the SIM boxes work 24 hours, seven days a week, to distribute millions of scams.
He showed one SIM box with 64 aerials—equivalent to 64 mobile phones.
'So each of these can send them out between one to five seconds times 64 times however long it's operating,' he explained.
In an attempt to stop the text messages from these machines, detectives are collaborating closely with Australian telcos. However, as soon as one site is shut down, another one appears.
Even though most smartphone users are alert to fraudulent texts, a small percentage of unsuspecting users still fall for the tricks and provide personal information.
Information obtained from unsuspecting users is then sold on the dark web.
'If you receive a text, treat it with absolute suspicion, legitimate businesses do not interact with their customers via text messages…they just don't do it,' Superintendent Craft advised.
The three men will appear in court on Friday, and if found guilty, they could spend up to ten years in prison.
In similar news, a man from Sydney was charged for allegedly sending over 17 million scam texts and impersonating well-known businesses such as Australia Post and Linkt.
The texts allegedly directed unsuspecting victims to fake websites for financial gain.
The 39-year-old man was apprehended at a Moorebank address in Sydney's Southwest in December.
You can read more about this here.
.png){kind=icon}
