Law enforcement officers from Australia have apprehended a 19-year-old boy from Sydney after allegedly exploiting the leaked Optus data for an SMS scam campaign. Based on reports, the young man attempted to leverage the leaked data last month to extort its victims.
The defendant is believed to have distributed numerous text messages for blackmail scams. The SMS contained demands that recipients pay about $2,000 to a bank account if they do not want their information to be used for illegal activities.
In addition, the law enforcement agency said that the data source was a sample of the first 10,000 records posted briefly on a hacker forum. The 19-year-old man may have gotten his hands on the leaked data before the authorities took it down.
The Australian news reporter said that the leaked Optus data fueled the recent scam.
Exploiting the leaked Optus data for a scam campaign has led to a search warrant at the accused’s house. Authorities confiscated the defendant’s mobile phone to disseminate text messages to nearly a hundred Optus customers.
Fortunately, no customers were fooled by the malicious text messages; therefore, no money was stolen by the teen.
The 19-year-old is currently unnamed by law enforcement officers. Still, he has been charged with using a telecom network with the intent to commit a severe offence and dealing with identity theft.
Each offence is punishable by the Australian law of imprisonment for 7 to 10 years.
The arrest was confirmed by authorities earlier this week after Optus suffered a data breach incident that affected more than two million users, ranging from current to former customers. The attack exposed their license numbers and Medicare ID numbers.
The attack also caused the launch of Operation Guardian by the law enforcement agency to identify the impacted 10,000+ users. The operation will also monitor the internet forums for the threat actors attempting to abuse the exposed information for financial motivation.
Lastly, Operation Guardian will also try to identify the threat actors behind the attack against Optus.
