Australian Police arrested a teen tried looting Optus Breach customers

The Australian Police has arrested a 19-year-old teen from Sydney for allegedly attempting to use data leaked after the Optus data breach in a fraudulent scheme aimed at extorting victims via SMS scams.

Operation Guardian led by AFP which became aware of a number of text messages demanding some Optus customers transfer $2000 to a bank account or face their personal information being used for financial crimes.

The authorities determined that data used in this criminal activity were from the 10,200 records stolen from the telecommunications giant last month.

The man sent SMS messages to 93 Optus customers, the good news is that none of the recipients transferred money to the account under the control of the man.

The AFP shared the following data related to the Operation Guardian:

• Identifying the 10,200 individuals across Australia now at risk of identity fraud and working with industry to enable further protection for those members of the public,
• Monitoring online forums, the internet and the dark web for other criminals trying to exploit the personal information released online,
• Engaging with the financial service industry to detect criminal activity associated with the data breach, and
• Analysing trends from ReportCyber to determine whether there are links between individuals who have been exploited.