Australian Man Arrested for Distributing “Ghost” App Used as ‘Whatsapp For Criminals’

A 47-year-old Australian man was held by the police for distributing the encrypted messaging app known as “Ghost”, which is used by criminals across the world for communications related to drug deals and violence.

The Ghost app was marketed to underworld organizations as “unhackable”. It is used by hundreds of criminals from Europe, the Middle East, Australia and Asia. It was allegedly designed by a 32-year-old Australian computer whiz living in suburban Sydney.

The Australian Federal Police on Wednesday announced that they had arrested a 47-year-old man “alleged to be a distributor” of the app.

In September criminals using this App were arrested from Italy, Ireland, Sweden, Canada and Australia — including Jay Je Yoon Jung, the alleged “mastermind”.

Ghost is a kind of WhatsApp for criminals. It was created nine years ago. It can be accessed via modified smartphones that are sold for about US $1,590.

French police traced the creator’s location to Australia. According to Europol, several thousand people worldwide used Ghost and around 1,000 messages were exchanged on it every day. There were 376 phones with the Ghost app installed in Australia alone.