A "considerable" number of Australians have likely had their identities stolen by a Sydney crime syndicate caught with thousands of fake cards, police say.
But it's too early to know exactly how many people were targeted or how much money the criminals made.
Three men and a woman were arrested in early Wednesday morning raids in Lakemba, Rockdale and Canley Vale, where police say the group had created thousands of fake credit cards, driver's licences and Medicare IDs.
Police believe the syndicate had been operating for several months with a focus on rorting financial institutions by using fraudulent IDs to obtain credit cards and loans.
About $160,000 in losses have been uncovered but the figure is likely to rise as investigations continue.
Police will also allege false identification was used by one person to board a domestic plane flight.
There is no evidence of a link to terrorism.
A "considerable" number of people were likely targeted unknowingly, Detective Superintendent Arthur Katsogiannis from the NSW Fraud and Cybercrime Squad said on Thursday.
He described identity theft as one of the biggest challenges facing police, with sensitive information like birth dates and addresses now freely available on social media sites.
"Personal data is a valuable commodity and you need to protect it at all costs," he said.
"Once your identity has been stolen it's very, very difficult to get it back."
Police cracked the syndicate after customs officers intercepted a package from China containing 5000 holograms used on driving licenses.
The manufacturing equipment seized during the raids was described as extremely sophisticated and similar to that used by the Australian government.
The offence of dealing with identification information carries a penalty of up to 10 years' jail, while participating in a criminal group carries a penalty of up to 15 years.
Police are not ruling out further arrests.
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