Two U.S. citizens stole crypto by swapping SIM cards

Two Americans, Erig Meigs and Declan Harrington were able to steal $330,000 worth of crypto assets.

According to the U.S. media, the guys face two years in prison for these pranks. Although, as the case says, the citizens used other methods to steal crypto, such as hacking into the victims' computers. But you have to agree. Sim card swapping sounds like something new. At least it is now. 

The DOJ claims that Meigs and Harrington's (not the same one) favourite practice was "SIM swapping." It's a form of theft in which attackers steal a cell phone number by assigning it to a new card based on a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM). Later, they would insert the new SIM card into the "left" device and gain access to different accounts. 

Recently, something similar happened in late August when three Miami residents, Esteban Cabrera Da Corte, Luis Hernandez Gonzalez, and Asdrubal Ramirez Meza, were facing charges of defrauding banks and cryptocurrency platforms for over USD 4 million. Their illegal transactions could result in 30 years in prison.

The trio bought digital assets on numerous platforms using users' identities. Then scammers complained to banks that the transactions were allegedly conducted without the necessary authorization, demanding a refund.

Somewhat complicated but also simple ways to steal crypto (concerning exploits and phishing) continue to make money for the perpetrators. But despite all the anonymity, scammers are pretty easy to spot since they are in direct contact offline...