A man accused of defrauding Telstra, CBA, and NAB customers was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.
The 40-year-old Sydney man made more than $100,000 from the SMS phishing scam, according to the Australian Federal Police, which said it targeted 450 victims.
He was found guilty on Friday of “creating, supplying or obtaining data with purpose to commit a computer offence,” as well as “attempting to get benefit by deceit,” “obtaining benefit by deception,” and “unauthorised access, alteration or impairment [of data]” by the Sydney Local Court.
The AFP claimed that it started looking into dubious website registrations in 2020.
The AFP reported that the perpetrator “used these web pages to get Australian victims to enter their personal information, which he would later use to access their telephone accounts, bank accounts, and create new accounts without their knowledge.”
At least 39 victims fell for his con, and they together lost more than $100,000, according to the authorities.
The two banks, Telstra, and the AFP collaborated to “identify victims who had entered information onto these false online pages,” according to the police.
This made it possible for the three businesses to provide those account holders more security.
This, according to the AFP, helped save money from being stolen from an additional 16,147 consumers.
On November 24, 2021, the individual was taken into custody after a joint AFP-NSW Police Cybercrime Squad investigation.
