Scam syndicate 'fall guy' spared conviction for driving around Brisbane with phone interception device
A gambling addict has avoided jail after admitting he drove around Brisbane with an illegal device designed to send fake CommBank fraud alerts to nearby phones.
The “fall guy” for a scam syndicate has faced court after police busted him driving around Brisbane with an illegal device programmed to intercept nearby phones and send them phishing texts.
Brisbane Magistrates Court heard on Friday how the device was programmed to transmit fraudulent messages to its victims, reading: “CommBank: Your account is being checked for suspected fraudulent funds”.
“Your account will be frozen immediately. Please click the below link to complete the verification”.
Zhuoping Huang, 31, was on Friday one of the first people in Queensland to be sentenced for the charge of possessing an interception device.
The charge, which he pleaded guilty to, carried a maximum of five years imprisonment - but just one year imprisonment when dealt with summarily in the Magistrates Court.
Magistrate Lewis Shillito said Huang had possessed the illegal device for a single week in March 2024, during which he drove around with it switched on for a number of days.
There was no evidence the device had actually transmitted its programmed message to any phones or caused any detriment.
However, investigations into the device from an expert revealed it had the capacity to mimic cellphone towers and connect to phones through proximity without their knowledge.
Huang, who had been struggling with a gambling addiction at the time, had been contacted via WhatsApp and paid $300 to use the device, the court heard.
“It is not suggested that you necessarily understood that the device could do those things,” Mr Shillito noted.
“But given what you told the police when you were arrested, at best you would have to have been wilfully blind to the capability of the device.”
The court heard police had been alerted to similar phishing scams at the time when they pulled Huang over and seized the device, which was connected to a laptop in his car.
There was no evidence Huang’s device had been the one transmitting messages that had come to police attention, but it was programmed to transmit such messages, the court heard.
Defence lawyer Daniel Hua noted the expert who analysed the device had also been analysing two identical ones from other states at the time - pointing to their increasing prevalence in the community.
Mr Hua suggested a probation order would assist in supervising his client and allow the court to not record a conviction.
He noted Huang had become a permanent resident after immigrating from China in 2017, and he hoped to apply for citizenship in future.
Huang had studied business in Sydney and worked as a contractor courier since then.
Mr Hua said his client had co-operated with police and only had a single breach of bail on his criminal history.
“There’s no evidence that he was a stakeholder in any other way connected to the syndicate who had provided to him this device,” he said.
“... He’s the fall guy so to speak of all of this.”
Mr Shillito said he would need to carefully consider the sentencing principles, given the parties could not find a single comparable case to use as a yardstick for Huang’s sentence.
“I do not accept that the offence is trivial,” he said.
“I consider the offence to be serious… because of the nature of the device and its capability.”
Despite highlighting a need for deterrence, Mr Shillito found that probation would be appropriate in Huang’s case.
He ordered that Huang enter a $1500 recognisance, and warned him he would be liable to forfeit that sum if he failed to comply with conditions that he be of good behaviour for 15 months.
Huang was also ordered to complete 15 months probation, and no conviction was recorded.
