A 34-year-old man from Lynbrook, a suburb of Melbourne, has been arrested and charged with conducting a mobile number porting scam. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) were alerted to suspicious activity in July 2024 by an Australian comms provider after they noticed repeated attempts to port mobile numbers to their network using potentially stolen credentials.
Porting scams involve transferring a phone number to a device controlled by the scammer without the knowledge or consent of the rightful user of that number. This allows criminals to defeat multi-factor authentication and potentially access bank accounts and obtain personal data belonging to victims.
Numerous porting attempts were investigated by AFP in conjunction with Victoria Police and the comms provider. They identified 193 dubious requests to port in numbers from other telcos. Many involved repeated use of the same phone numbers. A total of 86 different phone numbers were targeted, of which 44 were ported without consent.
A police search of the suspect’s residence resulted in the seizure of multiple mobile phones, a desktop computer, SIM cards, and drug paraphernalia. The accused faces a potential sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.
AFP Detective Superintendent Bernard Geason asked the public to be vigilant.
I urge people to be alert to unexpected text messages from your mobile service provider saying “you” have requested your number be ported to a different network provider. This could indicate a scammer is trying to port your phone.
Alternatively, if your mobile phone service is suddenly disconnected, or shows ‘SOS only’, this could also be a warning sign your number has been transferred to another provider without your authorisation.
You can see the AFP press release about this arrest by looking here.
