Teenage California Crypto Thieves Pinch $35 Million in SIM Swap Scam
By CCN: Hackers, many in their teens, have drained the accounts of more than 50 Californian victims in a $35 million SIM swap heist.
Officials estimate that in total, $50 million has been stolen in related attacks around the US since the beginning of 2018. The online scammers have targeted California in particular with the San Francisco Bay area seeing the bulk of the attacks.
SIM swapping is the process of porting a mobile number to another SIM card without a users knowledge or consent. Thieves are then able to fake identification to gain access to sensitive portals like an email or a bank account.
Seth Shapiro, a consultant in the blockchain space, had his life savings stolen last year after hackers gained access to his phone at a conference in Manhattan. According to an NBC Bay Area report:
He later learned from detectives that a group of hackers had seized control of his cellphone, striking from hundreds of miles away by using a technique called “SIM swapping”
Lawmakers Show No Mercy in Landmark Sim Swap Case
A perpetrator associated with Shapiro’s theft was caught red-handed and sentenced to ten years in prison for the first ever SIM swap fraud case in US history. Joel Ortiz, a 21-year-old man from Boston plead guilty last month in Santa Clara for his role in the crime.
I was a victim of a 2018 SIM card swap by Joel Ortiz, look him up. He was able to fake my ID to swap my SIM card to his phone and log into all my accounts. It happened twice over two months. I have since left ATT after 10+ years. pic.twitter.com/RVyhmk7tgV
— Trey Copeland (@treycopeland) May 22, 2019
