Details of SA-based alleged Optus data leak hack revealed

Allegedly equipped with Optus data leak details and holed up in an SA Airbnb, police say three men used personal information in a cyber hack. But many of the alleged victims remain unknown.

Three alleged Chinese hackers were arrested in a North Haven Airbnb with electronic devices with spreadsheets containing credit card and drivers licence details and prepaid Visas worth $23,000.

Among the spreadsheets, the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court heard, were personal details of about 1800 people – only 60 of whom had been identified – from South Australia and across the country.

Some of those details, the court heard, had allegedly already been used to make credit applications with various financial institutions and banks – in most cases without the knowledge of the individual whose name was on the application.

The allegations heard by the court are the most expansive known so far about what police say was a sophisticated phishing scam using details from the infamous Optus data leak carried out by Sheng Li, 24, Renzhong Chen, 31, and Xiaoxin Zheng, 20, from the comfort of the North Haven house.

The three men, who are Chinese nationals on varying Australian Visas, have been detained on remand while facing a hefty 48 charges of dishonestly taking property without consent, 26 of using another’s ID to commit an offence and one of identity theft.

Alleged Optus data breach hack could have affected 1800 people.

Mr Li and Mr Zheng also face five further counts of using another’s ID to commit an offence.

The court on Monday heard submissions from the men’s lawyers as to why they should be released on home detention bail, as police provided further detail on the case they were mounting.

Police prosecutor Grant Watterson told Magistrate Jayanthi Pandya all forms of bail for the men were opposed citing a risk they would be able to hack into online cloud storage facilities and destroy evidence if they were not behind bars.

Mr Watterson told the court the men all had “computing degrees” and allegedly had “expertise in the cyber crime area”.

“There is a real risk, given the defendants’ computing skills and knowledge, that the investigation could be exposed,” he said.

A stock image of a person typing on a keyboard.

A Optus service message is displayed on a phone outside an Optus store. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

According to court documents released to the Advertiser last month, the men were alleged to have used credit card details they had gleaned from unsuspecting people online to purchase prepaid Visas from Coles and Woolworths shops across the northern suburbs and in Welland and Prospect.

The court heard when the men were arrested at the North Haven Airbnb after a report of suspicious activity by one alleged victim, there were 110 of the prepaid cards at the house, totalling $23,000.

Twenty of the cards were in a room allegedly occupied by Mr Li and Mr Zheng, while 90 of them were in a room police say was used by Mr Chen.

Patrick Dawes, for Mr Li, told the court his client was nothing more than a “patsy” who was tasked with buying the cards from supermarkets – the resulting charges of which he had already pleaded guilty.

“(Part of the charges) relates to (Mr Li) allegedly going to the supermarket and attempting, using stolen credit card details, to buy prepaid credit cards,” he said.

“The sum total of the credit cards actually purchased by him during that period is $3295.”

Sean Nottle, for Mr Chen, told Ms Pandya his client, along with the other two men, had no cyber qualifications, and was a mining engineer in WA.

“He’s not an expert in mathematical wizardry on the computer by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.

Qijun Jia, for Mr Zheng, told the court all three men had spent two months in custody and his client could provide a $10,000 cash surety.

Ms Pandya deemed the risk the three men could impede the investigation was too great, and that they may try to return to WA and denied them bail.

They will next face court in March.