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Australians would be well accustomed to scam texts now. Day after day we receive messages pretending to be anything from a relative needing cash to Australia Post arranging a delivery.<\/p>\n
Now NSW Police allege they\u2019ve traced more than 17 million of these scam texts \u2013 purporting to be from a range of companies including Australia Post and toll company Linkt \u2013 to one man in Sydney\u2019s west.<\/p>\n
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One of the text messages allegedly sent by the Sydney man.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>NSW Police<\/cite><\/p>\n At 6am on Tuesday, detectives from the cybercrime squad searched a home in Moorebank after an investigation into the use of SIM boxes, which are electronic devices using multiple SIM cards to quickly send out phishing texts to multiple phones.<\/p>\n During the search, police say they found two active SIM boxes, multiple SIM cards and other electronics consistent with a phishing scam operation.<\/p>\n At the home, police arrested a 39-year-old man who was taken to Liverpool police station and charged with using equipment connected to a network to commit a serious offence.<\/p>\n He was granted conditional bail and will appear before Liverpool Local Court January 17.<\/p>\n A SIM box allows multiple messages to be distributed quickly to many phones. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>NSW Police<\/cite><\/p>\n The arrest comes as police warn of the dangers of phishing scams in the lead-up to Christmas. Phishing scams involve fraudulent texts claiming to be from a reputable institution that direct the victim to hand over personal and financial information or make payments.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we enter the final lead-up to Christmas, a lot of people will be expecting online deliveries; but under no circumstances should you ever click on a link you receive in an SMS message or email,\u201d cyber squad Commander, Detective acting Inspector Jason Smith said.<\/p>\n \u201cScammers will often pretend to be from a reputable company or financial institution so even if it\u2019s a company you regularly deal with, the safer option is to independently log into that company\u2019s website to check your account.\u201d<\/p>\n Australians have been robbed of $92 million in scams in the year to September 30, according to Scam Watch.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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