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Australians would be well accustomed to scam texts now. Day after day we receive messages pretending to be anything from a relative needing cash to Australia Post arranging a delivery.

Now NSW Police allege they’ve traced more than 17 million of these scam texts – purporting to be from a range of companies including Australia Post and toll company Linkt – to one man in Sydney’s west.

One of the text messages allegedly sent by the Sydney man.Credit: NSW Police

At 6am on Tuesday, detectives from the cybercrime squad searched a home in Moorebank after an investigation into the use of SIM boxes, which are electronic devices using multiple SIM cards to quickly send out phishing texts to multiple phones.

During the search, police say they found two active SIM boxes, multiple SIM cards and other electronics consistent with a phishing scam operation.

At the home, police arrested a 39-year-old man who was taken to Liverpool police station and charged with using equipment connected to a network to commit a serious offence.

He was granted conditional bail and will appear before Liverpool Local Court January 17.

A SIM box allows multiple messages to be distributed quickly to many phones. Credit: NSW Police

The arrest comes as police warn of the dangers of phishing scams in the lead-up to Christmas. Phishing scams involve fraudulent texts claiming to be from a reputable institution that direct the victim to hand over personal and financial information or make payments.

“As we enter the final lead-up to Christmas, a lot of people will be expecting online deliveries; but under no circumstances should you ever click on a link you receive in an SMS message or email,” cyber squad Commander, Detective acting Inspector Jason Smith said.

“Scammers will often pretend to be from a reputable company or financial institution so even if it’s a company you regularly deal with, the safer option is to independently log into that company’s website to check your account.”

Australians have been robbed of $92 million in scams in the year to September 30, according to Scam Watch.

The man will face court in January. Credit: NSW Police

The most reported scams were road toll scams with more than 19,000 reports and government impersonation scams with more than 17,000 reports.

Text messages are the most common form of online scam.

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