A Perth woman has been charged with 121 identity theft and fraud offences involving more than $500,000 after an extensive 19-month investigation, police said.
A box containing a notebook with the details of more than 60 people on it was allegedly found during a search of a house on Admiral Grove in the northern suburb of Heathridge.
Police said the details of some of those people were used to commit a range of fraud offences including opening bank accounts, obtaining loans and establishing lines of credit.
Those loans and credit lines totalled about $517,000 and were obtained from 14 financial institutions.
That figure includes funds that were allegedly obtained and those that were attempted to be obtained.
The loan applications were typically in the $20,000–$25,000 range, while the lines of credit ranged from $6,000 to $100,000, police said.
The 34-year-old woman is facing 121 charges including 62 counts of possession of identification material with intent to commit an offence and 49 of gaining a benefit by fraud.
Fraud on a 'significant' scale
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Winkler said the investigation was complex and required extensive liaison with a large number of financial institutions.
"The scale of the investigation was significant, with 14 financial institutions identified as being victims of fraud offences and over 60 innocent parties potentially having their details used in the commission of those fraud offences," he said.
"The investigation included the requesting of 55 Data Access Orders through the courts and required 70 legal requests for documents from financial and telecommunications entities, who have worked closely with detectives to identify the alleged offences."
The woman was refused bail when she appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday.
She is due to appear in court again on June 25.
'Lock your post box, shred your documents'
WA commissioner for consumer protection Lannie Chopping warned people to be more cautious about who they shared their personal information with.
"Lock your post box, shred your personal documents, be wary of where you go online and, most importantly, be aware of requests for personal information," she said.
Ms Chopping said thousands of West Australians received phone calls from scammers every day, claiming to be from legitimate organisations or the tax office.
"If you receive an unsolicited phone call from a government agency or from anyone, what you should do is not provide any personal information," she said.
"Take their details, independently look up their telephone number and contact that agency to find out if you have issues you need to deal with.
"People need to be less trusting and more suspicious when they receive phone calls before providing personal information."
Anyone who suspects they may be a victim of fraud should contact IDCare and ScamNet to get advice on what they should do.
