After being arrested in December last year, a Sydney man faced the court for allegedly sending a few fraudulent text messages. Okay, not just a few, 17 million texts. And here I am, too scared to double-text. If only I had his (alleged) bravery.
Xuan Su was apprehended by police officers after the NSW Police cyber-crime unit had grounds to believe he was behind an alleged scam that was sending countless texts to people while posing as companies.
Police reported that they found SIM cards and two SIM boxes, which are typically used in mass texting scams.
A SIM box is a device that can be used to send hundreds of thousands of texts from various phone numbers to anyone in the country. They are not illegal to possess in Australia, however are common amongst phishing scams.
Su has been accused by police of using his SIM boxes to send a whopping 17 million texts in just one week, while allegedly impersonating well-known companies, including AusPost and the toll-paying service Linkt.
Appearing on Wednesday at Campbelltown Local Court, Su has been charged by police with using equipment connected to a network to commit a serious offence, as well as dealing with identification information, which could see him face 10 years in prison if found guilty.
After his prosecutors told the court that they needed more time to analyze the “highly complex” case due to the “large volume of evidence” — I.E. the 17 million texts — the case was pushed back to July 2024.
Recently the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) published a warning to Australians to be weary of fake invoice scams, saying that the con had cost Aussies more than $16 million in 2023.
Fake invoice scams differ from the phishing scams that Su is accused of committing, in that they directly send victims a fraudulent invoice and have the unlucky person pay it.
Phishing scams pose as reputable companies and send out links, which once clicked ask their victims for personal details, which once provided can be used to commit further identity theft, fraud, or otherwise.
So if you just received a weird-looking invoice, or 17 million dodgy-looking texts and aren’t sure what to do: don’t click them.
No matter how much money the Nigerian Price promises you.
