NSW teen who tried to blackmail Optus customers after hack to plead guilty
A New South Wales teenager who allegedly tried to blackmail Optus customers affected by its September data breach is set to plead guilty to his charges.
Dennis Su, 19, texted 93 Optus customers, demanding they transfer $2000 to a CBA bank account "or face their personal information being used for financial crimes", police say.
No money was ever transferred.
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An AFP image of the alleged scammer who is set to plead guilty to charges. AFP
He was arrested on October 6 and charged with using a telecommunication network with intent to commit a serious offence and dealing with identification information.
His lawyers told Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday they were prepared to plead guilty to the charges, before the Commonwealth said it needed more time to review the case.
"We want to review the charges to ensure everything has been charged correctly," commonwealth prosecutor Hannah Panizzutti said.
The personal details of 10 million Optus customers were exposed in a data breach in September, exposing the passport, licence and Medicare numbers of hundreds of thousands of customers.
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The incident allegedly occurred after Optus' data breach. A Current Affair
The Australian Federal Police is running two inquiries into who obtained and attempted to sell the data and protections for more than 10,000 customers who had their records posted online.
The consumer watchdog has been flooded with Optus-related scam complaints following the data breach.
Su is out on bail and is set to face a sentence hearing on November 8.
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