Sydney man charged over alleged co-ordinated identity takeovers through phone porting

A Sydney man who said he wants to “make money work for me”, has been charged with allegedly using a simple trick to gain access to other people’s cash.

A Sydney man who boasted he was “in a process to not work for $Money$ but to make $Money$ work for me” on his Facebook page — has been charged over his alleged role in organised identity theft and fraud syndicate.

NSW Police allege the syndicate, operating out of western Sydney, used “phone porting” to take over up to 70 bank accounts and took $100,000 between February and September 2018.

Shalin Patel, 22, who shared a video called “Your Job is a Waste of Your Life” on his Facebook page last year, was arrested at his Doonside home for his alleged role in the syndicate.

Porting is a simple trick used to steal people’s mobile phone numbers, move them to a different carrier and use the stolen number to gain access to the victim’s other personal information including bank accounts.

Patel was arrested at his Doonside home and taken to Blacktown Police Station.

The western Sydney syndicate is accused of operating by porting victims’ mobile numbers to new carriers, and then contacting their banks to reset account details and passwords and gain access.

Police allege they would then register the account to Apple Pay to fraudulently purchase goods and transfer funds to overseas accounts.

Patel is also accused of laundering $48,000.

He was charged with four counts of unauthorised modification of data, two counts of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime, deal with identity information with intent to commit an indictable offence, participate in criminal group, and attempted obtain benefit by deception.

During the searches police seized mobile phones, electronic storage devices, laptops, identity documentation in the name of somebody other than a resident of the address, numerous luxury goods including men’s watches, boxes of electronic goods, clothing, banking records, and other documentation.

Patel’s Facebook page describes him as: “In a process to not work for $Money$ but to make $Money$ work for me #OneDay”.

Cybercrime Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Matt Craft, said identity crimes are a multimillion-dollar organised crime ‘business’, and phone porting is increasingly becoming a common enabler.

“Organised criminals seek to exploit vulnerabilities in systems for a financial advantage, and phone porting is an easily avoidable issue that enables broader criminal enterprise,” Supt Craft said.

Patel shared a video called “Your Job is a Waste of Your Life” on his Facebook page. Picture: Facebook

“In 2019, a mobile phone is central to a person’s financial security. It contains important information and when compromised, it can be devastating.”

He said that, while it can be difficult for telecommunication companies to identify the legitimacy of a request to swap networks, as many elements of an identity takeover have already been undertaken, police are concerned about the financial and emotional impact on victims.

“Generally speaking, the first a victim will know that their identity is being taken over is losing signal on their mobile phone, and in many cases, by the time they work out what has happened, they’ve lost access to their bank accounts and other services,” Supt Craft said.

“In the last 12 months, crimes enabled by phone porting have cost the community at least $10 million — and that is a conservative estimate based on what has actually been reported to police.

“While law enforcement agencies have been working closely with financial institutions to reduce the risk of frauds, we know more can be done and it’s time for all industries to put the interests of the people of NSW before profit.”

Police say further arrests are expected.

Patel is due to appear at Blacktown Local Court on April 11.

Originally published as Sydney man charged over alleged co-ordinated identity takeovers through phone porting