AFP busts alleged money-launderer working for email scammers
Cyber scammers are always finding new ways to rip-off the unwary. Photo: Getty
Businesses are being warned to be on the look out for suspicious emails after police charged a man with laundering thousands of dollars allegedly brought in by scams.
A specialist AFP taskforce targeting business email compromise (BEC) frauds arrested the man last week following a year-long investigation.
Police will allege the now 23-year-old received over $176,192 between June 2021 to May 2022, suspected of being the proceeds of BEC scams.
The AFP says the man acted as a money mule, facilitating the movement of funds obtained through various online scams targeting Australians.
The man allegedly dispersed the funds among a number of accounts, before transferring the money to another individual.
AFP Operation Dolos-EMMA8 began tracking the man’s operations in August 2022 after a bank alerted them to a large amount of suspicious funds changing hands.
Police searched the man’s Footscray home in November 2022 and seized a number of electronic devices and small amounts of cocaine and cannabis.
After examining evidence seized during the search, the man was arrested on July 13, 2023, and charged with one count of dealing with the proceeds of crime, worth $100,000 or more, and two counts of possessing a drug of dependence.
The maximum penalty for the proceeds of crime charge is 10 years imprisonment.
One of the scams allegedly stole $17,000 from an Australian construction company, using a fraudulent email from a furniture supplier claiming their bank details had changed.
The construction company subsequently paid the funds into a bank account that was in the man’s name.
AFP Senior Constable Khali Sherer said BEC has become a particularly prominent form of cyber threat, with Australians reporting losses of more than $98 million in 2021-2022.
“If you think an email is suspicious, make further enquiries. Call and check directly with the business or organisation you are dealing with,” Constable Sherer said.
Multiagency taskforce, Operation Dolos was established in January 2020 to target the rise of BECs, and has so far prevented more than $45 million from being lost to cybercriminals.
-AAP
