Man Jailed 2 Years for Identity Fraud in Crypto Exchange Sign-Ups
An Australian citizen was sentenced to prison for fraudulently using cryptocurrency exchanges with other people’s documents for his benefit, and through this, he has deprived the real account holders of their right to transact.
In his ruling on June 21, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) mentioned that the 31-year-old native Australian got punished at the Melbourne County Court.
At the start, a cybercrime victim from New South Wales reported his matter to a cybercrime reporting site in his country, the so-called Report Cyber. One of the victims was claimed only after the AFP investigations, finding the suspect had used stolen information from their driver’s licenses and inserted them on his photos, to open accounts on two exchanges that trade cryptocurrency.
Operation Stonefish Shows All Over the World Cybercrime Network
On the occasion of the arrest described, a joint global operation was carried out against a service provider engaged in facilitating cyber-attacks on financial institutions by IoT (Internet of Things) technology, which caused victim losses of US$670,000. To address the situation, the AFP announced the start of the “Operation Stonefish” in the month of August 2022. This was the result of activities on a UK website, which sold spoofing services for only $25.
When they bought such subscriptions, fraudsters were able to participate in the regulated actions on that site. For instance, the website helped create the scheme by pretending to be a genuine caller (robo-caller), sending authenticity confirmation codes or pin codes, and other related whispers to those they were trying to fraudulently target. A survey showed that the users who targeted Australia were among the highest. Thus, the two countries submitted their joint endeavor to detect the victims of the website and track down the users in Australia. This operation also led to the arrest of two other suspects according to an individual report of the Australian Federal Police.
AFP Constable Josh Simpson emphasized the emergence of “Cybercrime-as-a-service.” From now on, any illegal activity can be found on the internet as services that you can buy. For example, anyone is capable of getting access to someone’s computer and the internet and getting away with identity fraud or theft. Thus, it is truly important, especially now, to those who are in cryptocurrency to be informed on how to identify and defend themselves against crypto scam.
Perpetrator Prosecuted For Identity Fraud and More
In November 2022 the man’s house in Boronia was raided and searched by the AFP officers. They confiscated his existing and forged driver’s licenses, the lost passport, and the cards in the names of other people. Furthermore, a message was found on the computer through an encrypted messaging platform which was discussing identity crime and creating false documents.
As a result, the suspect did incur numerous charges under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 and the Criminal Code. These offenses comprised making false statements, dealing with proceeds of crime, and obtaining fake documents, respectively. The accused person got a two-year sentence in jail, with a non-parole period of 10 months.
Officials emphasized the case’s significance on exposing the impact of cyber-enabled crimes such as identity theft and the imperative to address these issues on a global scale. Detective Superintendent Tim Stainton added:
“The identification of the case unveils the deflating impact of cyber-elaborated identity fraud and it also reiterates the necessity for international teamwork in the fight against cybercrimes. It’s imperative that people, particularly the crypto player, are educated about how they can be saved from such a scam”.
