Bittrex Is Sued Over SIM Swap Scam Worth Over $1 Million

Bittrex is sued over the latest SIM Swap scam that netted criminals 100 bitcoins that are now worth about $1 million as we are reading further in the latest cryptocurrency news.

The case resembles other high-profile scandals in which a hacker seizes control of a victim’s cell phone and then goes over the online crypto accounts. The SIM swap was from a cellular carrier AT&T and the money was taken from Bittrex once the hacker took control over the victim’s online identity.

The hack against Seattle-based angel investor Gregg Bennet has not been resolved by the criminal investigators as others have been made public in legal filings. In this case, Bennet filed a lawsuit in Washington’s state King County Superior Court alleging that  Bittrex failed to provide security and even broke its security protocols by ignoring the industry standards, missing the chance to stop the burglary. He also alleged that Bittrex failed to act as the hack in April was in the processor to even respond quickly enough once notified by him directly. This is why Bittrex is sued by Bennet.

The financial legal examiner for the Washington State regulator handling consumer complaints concluded that Bittrex did not take ‘the reasonable steps to respond’ to Bennett’s notice and appears to have violated the terms of its own services in a signed letter dated August 30, 2019. Though various legal entities were notified of the hack, they didn’t announce any criminal charges in the case.

Bittrex declined to comment about the Bennet hack and the court case. The CEO Bill Shihara spoke about other recent SIM hacks and said that the exchange has robust security in place to prevent these account breaches including the two-factor authentication and email verification. However, there are some bumps in the road that might result in some user complaints but they actually save a lot of accounts from being breached. He said:

 “I think this is a problem that requires a lot of solutions and a lot of layers of security. And unfortunately one of the mantras that we use and often publish articles about is that ultimately you can’t trust your phone. You have to be aware that you could lose control of your phone.”