The Medicare Machine: Patient Details of 'Any Australian' for Sale on Darknet

A darknet trader is illegally selling the Medicare patient details of any Australian on request by “exploiting a vulnerability” in a government system, raising concerns that a health agency may be seriously compromised. An investigation by Guardian Australia can reveal that a darknet vendor on a popular auction site for illegal products claims to have access to any Australian’s Medicare card details and can supply them on request.

The seller is using a Australian Department of Human Services logo to advertise their services, which they dub “the Medicare machine”. Medicare card details are not publicly available. They are valuable to organised crime groups, because they allow them to produce fake physical Medicare cards with legitimate information that can then be used for identification fraud.

These identification cards have been used by drug syndicates to buy goods and lease or buy property or cars. The card details could also be used to defraud the government of Medicare rebates. In 2015 a police strike force targeted a group that was using Medicare card details to direct rebate payments into fraudulent bank accounts. Organised crime groups regularly use darknet auction services, which are more difficult for law enforcement agencies to track because they are not indexed or searchable like other parts of the internet...