An Uber driver will spend six years behind bars for fraudulently obtaining $200,000 as part of an elaborate Telstra phone scam which a judge described as being motivated by ‘pure greed’.
Hassan Zia Rana set up the scam targeting Telstra customers between April and May 2020 which resulted in more than one hundred iPhones being ordered and delivered to addresses in Mawson Lakes, in Adelaide’s north.
The 25-year-old man created the elaborate scheme targeting Telstra customers with his brother in Pakistan.
It worked by customers first receiving a call from a woman telling them she worked for the telco.
She would then tell people that the company was offering a discount before they were asked for a pin number sent to their phone.
The woman would then ask the customer to read the pin number out aloud from the text message that had been sent to them.
Hassan Zia Rana (pictured) will be jailed for setting up an elaborate phone scam targeting Telstra customers, obtaining Apple iPhones worth $200,000
At the time customers could access their Telstra online account using a one-time pin code which would be sent through a text to the customer.
The pin would then be used to access a customer’s online Telstra account, allowing Rana to place orders for brand new Apple iPhones.
The phones were then delivered to various addresses in Mawson Lakes and collected by courier drivers hired by Rana who would deliver the devices to him.
During Rana’s sentencing, the District Court was told phones worth $200,000 were ordered between April and May 2020.
Around $83,000 worth of phones have not been recovered.
The court also heard evidence from an undercover police officer who was offered $25 by Rana for delivering the phone in a parcel with a $1,000 bonus offered if he managed to deliver 150 packages.
The District court heard the 25-year-old was part of the scheme along with his brother who lives in Pakistan, hiring courier drivers to deliver iPhones to him ordered through the accounts of unsuspecting Telstra customers
South Police raided Rana’s home (pictured) and found thousands of dollars in cash
Officers from South police raided Rana’s property on May 25, 2020 and seized $65,000 in cash.
Rana, a former student who completed a Bachelor of Aviation in 2021, was charged with 20 counts of money laundering after he had previously denied he was a part of the intricate scheme.
‘You gave various explanations, most of which were nonsense and almost all of which were lies,’ Judge Heath Barklay told Rana in court, as reported by he Advertiser.
‘You were motivated purely by greed.’
Judge Barklay found that Rana was working with his brother to send money from the phones to Pakistan with Rana also understood to receive a significant amount of from the proceeds.
‘You were part of a sophisticated, organised group that were actively targeting Telstra and stealing large amounts of mobile phones from them,’ Judge Barklay said.
Rana admitted during proceedings he had been involved in the scheme for six years.
Rana was sentenced to six years in prison with a non-parole period of three years and six months, after which he faces the prospect of being deported back to Pakistan.