US Arrests SIM Swappers After Major Crypto Thefts

The Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) has arrested two Massachusetts residents this Thursday, both of which were trying to steal cryptocurrency and hijack social media accounts from individuals with the technique of swapping their SIM cards on their phones. The official press release shows that US arrests the SIM swappers following these claims.

In fact, the US Department of Justice has charged Eric Meiggs (21) and Declan Harrington (20) on counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, computer fraud, abuse and identity theft as they tried to target cryptocurrency company executives and other individuals “who likely had significant amounts of cryptocurrency,” as well as people “who had high value or ‘OG’ (slang for ‘Original Gangster’) social media account names.”

The two of them sought to steal more than $550,000 in cryptocurrency from 10 different individuals. They apparently secured access to two social media accounts as well. The victims were not identified at the time, but the indictment briefly described several of their connections to the crypto space.

The latest Bitcoin scam shows that one victim “owned a Bitcoin teller machine” and the other one “ran a blockchain based business.”

Meanwhile, SIM swapping is not a new technique to steal identities. As US arrests SIM swappers, everyone should know how the technique works and protect themselves. Basically, the attackers pose as the owners of a cell phone number, convincing the cellular service providers to give them access to the victims’ accounts.

By taking control of a cell phone number, the attackers are able to log into social media (and sometimes other accounts including crypto exchange accounts) which gives them access to the users’ crypto holdings and other information.

Similar issues were reported by Messari, VideoCoin and Coin Center in the recent weeks. According to Michael Terpin who is a prominent investor in the cryptocurrency space, the US arrests SIM swappers but needs to focus on lawsuits, too. In his own case against AT&T, he won $75 million against the Manhattan resident Nicholas Truglia (21).

As the press release shared on Thursday shows, the US arrests SIM swappers led by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service along with its Criminal Investigations units which are continuing to investigate cases like these.