Three men were arrested and a “sophisticated” scam text operation dismantled which police allege was responsible for sending 318 million texts in just three months from a handful of locations around Sydney.
In a joint operation with the Australian Federal Police and state police, officers stormed locations in Sydney’s CBD, Wolli Creek, Burwood and Auburn where they uncovered multiple SIM boxes – devices which connect to several SIM cards to send out millions of text messages.
This SIM box was uncovered in a previous operation. Credit: NSW Police
The messages often purport to be from trusted companies or government departments, and ask the recipient for their personal information in a bid to scam them out of their money or steal their identities.
NSW Police detective superintendent Matt Kraft said those four locations alone were responsible for between 50-75 per cent of the scam text messages coming out of NSW.
“Yesterday we seized a total of 26 SIM boxes … and over 500 mobile handsets,” he said.
“It will be alleged that at those locations, they were technically savvy and it was a very sophisticated set up where those SIM boxes were able to be controlled from that location but also remotely.”
At Wolli Creek police found a large scam set-up with 11 SIM boxes operating from a single location.
Police call the phenomenon “smishing” – short for SMS phishing. Police say the crime is prevalent in Australia, and further arrests are expected in the near future.
A total of six people were arrested in the national day of action against “smishing” on Thursday.
AFP Detective Superintendent Tim Stainton said there is no legitimate reason for any Australian to possess a SIM box, and called on members of the public to call police if they ever see one in use.
“Anyone who has a mobile phone could potentially become a victim, most members of the community have received these text messages,” Stainton said.
