Manila cyberscam raid uncovers up to 5000 Australian victims and an intelligence goldmine
The AFP has uncovered an ‘intelligence goldmine’ from a cyber scam centre which authorities fear may have targeted as many as 5000 Australian men through online dating websites.
The Australian Federal Police has uncovered an “intelligence goldmine” from a raided Manila cyber scam centre which authorities fear may have targeted as many as 5000 Australian men through online dating websites.
The AFP says the action represents a significant milestone for Operation Firestorm, launched this year to disrupt offshore cybercriminals targeting Australians, because it is the first time Australian investigators have been able to access a scam centre compound.
They are now working with officials in The Philippines to identify and contact potential Australian victims of the romance scams after the October 3 bust in which more than 250 suspected cyber criminals were arrested in Pasay City in central Manila.
AFP assistant commissioner cyber command Richard Chin told The Australian three officers invited to inspect the cyber scam factory within a fortnight of the raid found a rich vein of data that will assist police in combating what has become among the world’s most profitable and prolific organised crimes.
Australian technical and cryptocurrency experts were also working with their counterparts in The Philippines counterparts to collate that data from a huge trove of material to determine who the cybercriminals were targeting and how they did so.
Evidence gathered would be shared with other law enforcement partners to help shut down scam centres operating elsewhere across the globe.
But already AFP cryptocurrency experts had gleaned valuable insight into the complex financial and money laundering structures within cybercrime hubs that could be used to help combat criminals targeting Australians.
Mr Chin said the centre was believed to be operating on Australian time zones and using scripts designed to appeal to Australian male victims over 35.
Scammers would approach the men through online dating apps and social media and eventually lure them onto encrypted messaging platforms such as Telegram where the victims would be tricked into investing money in fake cryptocurrency trading schemes.
“It is still to be absolutely confirmed but our initial information is that we’re looking at up to 5000 Australian men (potentially affected),” he said.
The latest activity is part of an AFP push under Operation Firestorm to ramp up co-operation with law enforcement partners in Southeast Asia and further afield to disrupt organised crime syndicates now operating sophisticated cyber scam rackets targeting Australian and other Western victims through romance, investment or cryptocurrency scams.
Mr Chin said the AFP had also contributed to raids on cyberscam compounds in eastern Europe, including Serbia where four call centres early last year were found to have scammed some €350m ($560mm) from 90,000 victims worldwide, including 34,000 Australians.
But those raids proved controversial after the head of Germany’s police cybercrime unit revealed the Australian Securities & Investments Commission had failed to contact Australian victims despite being provided with the relevant data.
Online scam activity is now so pervasive it represents one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, with conservative estimates putting its earnings north of $US60bn ($92bn) a year.
Australians reported some $2.74bn in losses to cyberfraud in 2023, more than $200m of that to romance scams, according to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s Targeting Scams report, though fewer than 40 per cent of victims worldwide actually report the crime.
Detective Inspector Darrell Parrish, from the AFP-led Joint Police Cybercrime Co-ordination Centre (JPC3), told The Australian it had been “amazingly valuable to lay eyes on the infrastructure” employed by the cybercriminals in Manila.
“This was a basement of a building full of computers, literally hundreds of computers, thousands of mobile phones, hundreds of SIM cards per phone … the electronic data The Philippines were able to seize is immense,” he said. “For me the biggest light bulb moment was just how sophisticated and structured this business model was.”
He said the intelligence dividend from the raid was particularly important for Australian telecommunications companies now working independently and within the JPC3 to develop ways of blocking ever more sophisticated cyber scam operators from targeting Australians.
Police have urged all Australians to be on their guard for romance and investment scams and to be sceptical of all requests for money or personal information.
Anyone who believes they have fallen victim to cybercriminals, or knows someone who may have, is urged to report it at https://www.cyber.gov.au. Click on the red “Report” button on the top right of the website.
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