A Chinese illegal immigrant has been refused bail after being charged over an alleged phishing scam where Australians were bombarded with millions of fraudulent text messages.
Chinese national Jiahui Liu, 30, was arrested on Tuesday in a squalid share house in Aitkenvale, Townsville, where police allegedly found a SIM box and 1,265 SIM cards, and faced Townsville Magistrates Court on Friday.
The court heard that Liu, who needed a Mandarin translator, had been living in Australia unlawfully and actively tried to avoid detection while allegedly sending 4.9 million texts directing victims to fake websites in order to steal their money and/or personal information, ABC News reported.
Queensland Police allege the texts were designed to look like they were from Medicare, Australia Police, the Commonwealth Bank, Centreline, Transurban and Linkt, and police prosecutor described Liu’s alleged offending as serious.
“It’s clearly used to facilitate either a criminal organisation or individuals in order to defraud members of the community in Australia,” Sergeant Tim Madsen said.
Acting Magistrate Kerri Fredericks denied Liu bail, saying there was an “unacceptable risk” the illegal immigrant would commit another offence or fail to appear if released.
Liu told police he accepted a “part-time job” on Chinese social media platform WeChat and was sent a SIM box and 100 to 200 SIM cards in the mail, was told to connect it to a computer, grant someone else remote access for set-up, send photos of the cards to a ‘Big C’ for activation, and change the cards nightly, Ms Fredericks noted.
For every night he operated the SIM box he was paid in Chinese currency, the court heard.
“He denied knowing they were scams and believed the messages were advertising,” Ms Fredericks said.
“He wasn’t suspicious about this work.”
Liu’s Legal Aid lawyer Carly Hoyer said her client was going through a “very distressing time” since he had been unable to contact his family in China since his arrest.
The court heard Liu first moved to Perth on a working holiday visa in 2019, and moved to Townsville in March, avoiding detection by registering his phone in another name, directing mail to a “massage parlour”, and living in a share house. His latest visa expired in August.
Liu will face court again in October.
Header image and video: Queensland Police
