Teen SIM Swapper Steals Over $1 Million in Cryptocurrencies

2018-8-25 22:15

Police in Santa Clara, California, have arrested a 19-year-old SIM swapper who allegedly stole over $1 million in cryptocurrencies. One victim alleged that he lost $150,000 in crypto as a result of the SIM card fraud.

The teen stole mobile phone numbers from his victims and used them to then gain access to their bank accounts, social media accounts or cryptocurrency accounts. In SIM swaps, ownership of the mobile phone number moves from the victim to the criminal, meaning all calls and text messages to the stolen number are then received by the criminal. The criminal can then use it to verify identity and login access to any platform using 2-factor authentication via SMS.

Enough to Buy a McLaren

Xzavyer Clemente Narvaez, the teen who used SIM swap to steal cryptocurrencies, used his bounty to buy a McLaren worth $200,000, according to a report on Krebs on Security. He is currently facing several charges of identity theft, property theft and damaging computer data, among others.

Narvaez is not the first young hacker to be identified by the police in a SIM swap and crypto hacking case. Before him, a 20-year-old college student from Boston named Joel Ortiz was arrested by law enforcement after he reportedly stole over $5 million from 40 victims.

Narvaez was brought to the attention of the police after they arrested Ortiz. A phone used by Ortiz to perform his SIM swaps had been used once to access the Google account “[email protected].”

Increasing Number of SIM Swap Frauds

Earlier this month, crypto investor and serial entrepreneur Michael Terpin filed a $223.8 million lawsuit against AT&T. He alleged that the company’s negligence led to a SIM card swap that led to him $23.8 million in cryptocurrencies. The lawsuit has alleged fraud, invasion of privacy, and gross negligence amongst other things. The case was filed with the US District Court in Los Angeles.

Teen SIM Swapper Steals Over $1 Million in Cryptocurrencies was originally found on [blokt] - Blockchain, Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

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