By Jessica McSweeney
Three men have been arrested after police dismantled a “sophisticated” scam text operation that police allege sent 318 million texts in just three months from a handful of locations around Sydney.
As part of 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, which are devices that connect to several SIM cards to send out millions of text messages around the country.
Police allege the scammers used thousands of SIM cards. Credit: NSW Police
The messages, which often purport to be from trusted companies or government departments, ask the recipients 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 and 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.”
One of the “sophisticated” alleged “smishing” set-ups. Credit: NSW Police
A 23-year-old man was arrested in a unit in Sydney’s CBD and charged with using equipment connected to a network to commit a serious offence, and dishonestly obtaining personal financial information.
At Burwood a 25-year-old man was arrested and charged with dealing with identity information to commit an indictable offence, and tampering with evidence to mislead a judicial tribunal.
At Wolli Creek, police found a large scam set-up in which 11 SIM boxes were operating from a single location.A 25-year-old man was arrested and charged with using the equipment to commit a serious offence.
All three men were refused bail by police and will appear before the courts on Friday.
Police call the phenomenon “smishing”, which is short for SMS phishing. Police say the crime is prevalent in Australia and that further arrests are expected in the near future.
An example of a phishing text. Credit: NSW Police
Five people were arrested in the national day of action against “smishing” on Thursday.
AFP Detective Superintendent Tim Stainton said there was no legitimate reason for any Australian to possess a SIM box. He 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.
Australians have lost $5.6 million in text message-related scams so far this year according to data from Scam Watch.
NSW is the most impacted state in Australia when it comes to these scams with 15,639 reports to Scam Watch this year.
In December 2023 NSW Police were able to trace 17 million scam texts to one man in Moorebank, who used a SIM box to send scam messages purporting to be from Australia Post and tolling company Linkt.
More to come
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