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Law360, London (May 20, 2021, 3:03 PM BST ) A fraudster has been sentenced to more than four years in prison after being caught sending out mass scam text messages about COVID-19 vaccines, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.
Teige Gallagher, 21, was sentenced on Wednesday at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, also known as the Old Bailey, for running a scam that involved sending out text messages offering vaccines in return for personal and bank information. Police found a phone belonging to Gallagher with more than 2,000 numbers used to send out fraudulent messages.
He was sentenced to four years and three months in prison after pleading guilty to committing fraud by false representation and for being in possession of articles for use in fraud.
"At a time when the country is looking to the COVID-19 vaccination rollout to help our society return to normal, Gallagher was seeking to exploit this by prising vital personal financial information from vulnerable victims eagerly wanting their vaccine," John Werhun, a specialist prosecutor the CPS, said. "Criminals are increasingly using sophisticated online methods to try and extract information and money from unsuspecting members of the public."
Gallagher was sentenced after an investigation by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit, a specialist unit of the City of London and Metropolitan Police funded by the banking industry.
The CPS said that Gallagher sent out messages purporting to be from legitimate organizations such as the National Health Service. He set up a false NHS website, which he directed victims to and told them they had to enter personal information to confirm their eligibility for a vaccine.
Gallagher also sent messages pretending to be from banks and the streaming service Netflix, the CPS said, adding that Gallagher sent SMS text messages to a list of mobile phone numbers that came from an earlier data breach. He tailored the scam message to the particular victim based on the information he had about them from the breach.
This strategy of using fake text messages to lure in victims is known as smishing. Gallagher also engaged in phishing, a similar technique involving sending out scam emails to get victims to hand over their passwords, the CPS said.
Werhun said the CPS brought Gallagher's scam to a "rapid close" and hopes the sentence will serve as a deterrent to other would-be cyber-criminals.
Online scams such as Gallagher's have increased in the past 12 months as fraudsters seek to capitalize on financial anxieties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the CPS said.
The House of Commons Treasury Committee said in October that it would investigate the rise of push-payment scams during the COVID-19 outbreak as it investigates financial crime. Fraudsters us the scam try to persuade banking customers to send them money.
The Financial Conduct Authority said in September that it would also clamp down on economic crime. The regulator said in its annual report for the 12 months to March that it had reimbursed £116 million ($164 million) to victims of push-payment fraud, up 40% from 2018.
--Additional reporting by Najiyya Budaly. Editing by Joe Millis.
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