For her part in a cybercrime ring that defrauded unsuspecting Australians of millions of dollars, a Melbourne woman was sentenced to prison.
Jasmine Vella-Arpaci, 24, acknowledged being a key player in the fraudulent plan that went after share trading and superannuation accounts.
While there were other attempts to get $1.8 million from super funds and $5.7 million in shares, the syndicate was successful in scamming $3.238 million.
Jasmine Vella-Arpaci, 24, acknowledged being a key player in the fraudulent plan that went after share trading and superannuation accounts.
In Hong Kong, where $2.5 million was laundered, stolen money was transferred into recently opened bank accounts and debit cards were sent to fictitious addresses.
As part of her job, Vella-Arpaci set up a phishing scam to obtain account login information. She also targeted admin, HR, and bookkeeper usernames in an effort to obtain information about superannuation accounts and identification documents.
An updated text scam urges mothers to save a new phone number and claims that their son or daughter flushed their phone down the toilet.
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In late 2018, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Australian Federal Police started looking into the syndicate.
When Vella-Arpaci arrived back in Australia from Turkey in April 2019, she was detained at Melbourne Airport.
The 24-year-old admitted guilt to two counts of conspiring to commit fraud and one count of conspiring to trade in proceeds of crime last month in the Victorian County Court.
She was given a five-year, six-month prison term with a four-year non-parole period on Friday.
Jasmine Vella-Arpac was sentenced to prison for her participation in a cybercrime ring that defrauded helpless Australians of millions of dollars. (Nine)
John Ford, deputy commissioner of the Australian Tax Office and head of the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce, praised the judgment and promised that police will continue to take cybercrime seriously.
“Today’s result shows that there really is no place to hide for those who want to scam the system, especially at the expense of others,” Ford said on Friday.
“We’ll act decisively.”
