Pakistani student Hassan Zia Rana jailed for intricate Telstra iPhone scam

A Mawson Lakes uni student is behind bars for running a sophisticated scam targeting Telstra customers across Australia – and it took six years for him to be caught.

An Uber driver has been jailed after he laundered more than $200,000 as part of an intricate mobile phone scam with links to Pakistan.

Hassan Zia Rana, 25, was motivated “purely by greed”

During sentencing, the District Court heard Rana first came to the attention of police monitoring a scam targeting Telstra customers across Australia.

At the time, Telstra online accounts could be logged into using a “one-time pin”, which would be texted to the customer’s phone.

The court heard Telstra customers would receive a phone call from a female purporting to work for Telstra between April and May 2020.

Hassan Zia Rana was found guilty of laundering more than $200k as part of an international scam. Picture: Facebook

He was jailed for six years. Picture: Facebook

The woman would offer a discount on behalf of the company and explain a pin was needed to activate the special.

A text would arrive on the customer’s phone and the woman would ask for the pin to be read out loud.

The pin was not linked to a discount but was the “one-time pin” that allowed the woman, or someone working with her, to log into the customer’s online account.

“That PIN was then used to access the customer’s account online and a new Apple iPhone was ordered using the Telstra online shop,” Judge Heath Barklay said.

The phones would be ordered to various addresses in Mawson Lakes, regardless of where the customer lived.

The court heard Rana recruited courier drivers to collect the parcels and deliver them to him.

Police began monitoring both the driver and Rana and soon introduced an undercover operative who also started taking money from Rana to deliver him the packages.

The court heard evidence from the officer who said he met with Rana and was offered $25 per package with a $1000 bonus after 150 packages had been delivered.

On May 25, 2020, police raided Rana’s Mawson Lakes unit and found $65,000 in cash.

Bundles of cash found at Hassan Zia Rana’s Mawson Lakes apartment. Picture: District Court

The kitchen of Hassan Zia Rana’s Mawson Lakes apartment where he was found with tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Picture: District Court

The court heard more than 100 Apple iPhones, with a total value of $200,000, were fraudulently ordered between April and May 2020, with $83,000 worth of phones not recovered.

Rana was found guilty after a trial of 20 counts of money laundering, after initially denying any involvement in the scheme.

“You gave various explanations, most of which were nonsense and almost all of which were lies,” Judge Barklay said.

Judge Barklay found that Rana had been acting in tandem with his brother – who was based in Pakistan – and was an integral part of the scheme.

He said Rana would send money from the phones to Pakistan, but also stood to receive a significant amount of money himself.

Rana has now accepted his involvement, admitting he had been doing so for about six years prior to the charged offending.

The court heard Rana came to Australia at 18 before completing a Bachelor of Aviation in 2021.

Judge Barklay said the fact Rana was now likely to be deported was “entirely of his own making”.

He sentenced Rana to six years jail, with a non-parole period of three years and six months.

“You were part of a sophisticated, organised group that were actively targeting Telstra and stealing large amounts of mobile phones from them,” Judge Barklay said.

“You were motivated purely by greed.”