Security News > 2022 > December > Woman gets 66 months in prison for role in $3.3 million ID fraud op
The Australian Federal Police have announced today that a 24-year-old woman from Melbourne, arrested in 2019 for her role in large-scale, cyber-enabled identity theft crimes, was sentenced to five years and six months in prison.
According to the AFT, she was part of an international crime syndicate engaged in "Large-scale and sophisticated cybercrimes," stealing at least $3.3 million and laundering another $2.5 million.
Further investigations aided by files found on seized devices revealed that the suspect was purchasing stolen identities of real individuals on the dark web, used fraudulently registered SIM cards, and spoofed email accounts to perform 'identity takeover.
The crooks then used these identities to open over 60 bank accounts across various Australian financial institutions and then stole money from the victims' superannuation and stock trading accounts.
AFP. After withdrawing the money from the fraudulent bank accounts, the woman sent them to a contact in Hong Kong who purchased assets that are more difficult to trace that were resold.
As the AFP highlights in the report, most of the victims of these crimes had not realized that their identities had been stolen and sold on the dark web, so they had no way to defend against the fraud.