- Single Australian man accused of sending 17 million scam texts nationwide.
- Texts contained phishing URLs aimed at stealing personal information.
- Police call SMS phishing a common tactic, highlighting potential dangers.
An Australian man, nearly every adult in the nation included, was accused by police on Wednesday of sending 17 million fraudulent texts from his suburban Sydney home.
The unidentified 39-year-old, according to New South Wales police, is solely to blame for the scam texts that have been bothering cell phone customers all throughout the nation.
Allegedly, the SMS were sent via “SIM boxes” that had the capacity to transmit tens of thousands of messages daily. They contained bogus URLs that appeared to be from Australia Post or toll road operators.
The individual was given bail after being accused of “committing serious offence” with networked equipment.
“SMS phishing is one of the most common tactics deployed by scammers to obtain banking and other personal information from a victim,” said Jason Smith, commander of the police Cybercrime Squad.
“SIM boxes can hold over 250 active SIM cards and will typically send out up to 150,000 messages per day containing phishing lures to various scams.”
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