Hallam thief used card stolen from mailbox in $48k online bank scam
A Hallam con artist used a stolen card taken from a mailbox to fleece a homeowner out of $48k. And all it took was one phone call.
South East
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A con artist ripped off a homeowner out of nearly $50,000 by conning a bank into handing over a new online password.
Aristidis Spiliotis used a nicked bank letter stolen from a mailbox to get account numbers before calling the bank to change access details.
The Hallam 27-year-old then transferred $48,000 to his and two cronies’ accounts and they quickly withdrew the cash.
But he was easily caught as he had used his own phone number to call the bank and used his own accounts to deposit the funds into.
Spiliotis pleaded guilty to deception and dealing with proceeds of crime charges at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
He also pleaded guilty to possessing ice and bail breach charges.
Court documents show between February 26 and March 19 this year unknown thieves stole a bank card that had been mailed to the victim.
On March 19 Spiliotis rang the man’s bank requesting assistance with recovering a password used to access online accounts.
Once he got a new code Spiliotis and his and his two pilfering pals transferred a total of $48,000 in 11 transactions over four days.
Of that, $16,000 went into two accounts owned by Spiliotis.
He was arrested on August 6 with a small bag of ice in his bedroom, saying the drugs were for his personal use.
He said the deception was not his idea but he “needed some money” so agreed to the fraud, and that he only got $6000 for his part.
The bank has since refunded all of the $48,000 to the victim.
Spiliotis’ defence lawyer said the crime was “fairly opportunistic and brazen”, and he had not gone to any great lengths to conceal his identity.
She said he had substance abuse problems, was co-operative with police and had already spent 42 days in custody.
Magistrate Andrew Halse said there were elements of the deception that took detailed preparation.
“The deception was planned, and caused significant loss that has to be borne by members of the community,” Mr Halse said.
“He’s responsible for the deception of $48,000 and documents indicate $16,000 went into his own bank account.
“And none of it has been recovered.”
He ordered Spiliotis to be assessed for a community corrections order, but said that should not be taken as an indicator he wouldn’t be jailing him.
Spiliotis was remanded in custody to be sentenced on December 9.
