The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said it has prevented about A$83 million being lost to scams around the world since 2020 as part of its cybercrime operations.
The AFP, Australia’s national policing agency, said its investigators prevented these losses to scammers and criminal syndicates investigators while working with industry partners as part of the Operation Dolos joint taskforce.
It said five people were arrested in Australia after police closed a platform known as LabHost which was used to steal personal credentials from victims around the world, including more than 94,000 people in Australia.
More than 100 cybercrime investigations were continuing as international organised cybercrime groups continue to target Australia through sophisticated crimes using technology.
AFP Assistant Commissioner Richard Chin said AFP investigators worked tirelessly in 2024 to investigate high-level organised cybercrime and take the fight to criminals offshore.
“The AFP will not stand by and watch Australians lose their life savings, identities and wellbeing to these criminal syndicates,’’ Chin said in a media release.
“The AFP continued to work closely with our partners in 2024 to help protect Australians from cybercrime, both here in Australia and abroad.
“Criminal syndicates who use the internet as a tool for their cowardly offending against Australians are located all over the world.
“With over 100 active AFP investigations, the community can rest assure our teams will be relentless in 2025 to impact organised cybercrime syndicates wherever they are, including bringing offenders before the courts, either here or overseas.”
The AFP helped in the global take down of the LabHost phishing-as-a-service platform and joined other Australian police to disrupt cyber criminals allegedly using SIM boxes in Australia to send thousands of scam text messages.
Coordinated via the AFP-led operation, six alleged offenders were identified, and 42 sim boxes and thousands of sim cards were seized.