Australia police agencies have joined forces to disrupt cyber criminals allegedly using SIM boxes - to commit large-scale SMS phishing attacks - as a means of scamming and thieving millions of dollars.
Search warrants across suburbs in Melbourne and Sydney resulted in six arrests and yielded 29 SIM boxes, as well as SIM box parts, SIM cards, mobile phones, laptops, stolen identity documents, gift cards, cash, luxury cars and watches, and a gel blaster.
The alleged offenders are suspected of using SIM boxes to send SMS phishing messages in order to obtain personal information from unsuspecting victims, with the focus of the attacks being their banking or government-affiliated online accounts.
"Criminals will send millions of deceptive text messages to Australian mobile users' casting a wide net over the entire community in an attempt to trap and defraud as many victims as possible," said Australian Federal Police (AFP) Detective Superintendent Tim Stainton. "The SIM boxes had a combined potential to send between four and six million fraudulent messages every day and those seized in NSW alone have sent more than 318 million messages over the past several months, scamming victims out of millions of dollars."
Victoria Police Detective Superintendent Tim McKinney, Cybercrime Division called the attacks cowardly: "It involves criminals ... taking advantage of the trust the community has in legitimate business names. They rely on a handful of unsuspecting recipients clicking the link and inputting their details, and the consequences for those people can be devastating and life changing."
Police urge the public to ensure they have in place preventative steps such as strong, unique passphrases and enabling multi-factor authentication for online accounts, as well as having a good look at text messages and before clicking on any links.
