- Two men were sentenced to prison for running a hacker network and stealing crypto currency worth $330,000.
- Declan Harrington, 22 and Eric Meiggs 24, used illegal practices known as SIM swapping.
- Insider was told by two lawyers how to defend against an attack.
Two Massachusetts men were jailed after they took over social media accounts and stole cryptocurrency holdings using an illegal technique called SIM-swapping. Department of JusticeOn Wednesday
Eric Meiggs (24) from Brockton and Declan Harrington (22) of Beverly were each sentenced to just under two years for SIM Swapping, Computer Hacking and other techniques that enabled them to steal approximately $330,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
According to court documents, both men targeted cryptocurrency executives and other people who had significant amounts of crypto.
Meiggs, Harrington targeted at most 10 victims in the US. The victims were allegedly victim to a theft of crypto worth approximately $330,000. Meiggs allegedly seized two “OG” social-media accounts.
SIM swapping
Insider was told by Robert Freund that this practice allows fraudsters remote access to a cell phone number. This is used to authenticate logins for banking, email and social media accounts.
He said that if a victim has two factor authentication for these services enabled via SMS confirmation then fraudsters will be able to satisfy authentication challenges as they will receive the SMS codes to the victim’s phone number.
Omar Ochoa, another lawyer, said that SIM swapping could be made illegal by telecom companies. All companies that retain and collect private information have a duty of care to your data.
To ensure that it is actually speaking to customers, your phone provider must have strong identity verification procedures. Ochoa explained that if you find the procedures too lax or customer service representatives don’t follow the rules, then it is possible for you to claim that your phone company was responsible for the SIM Swap.
The February issue of the FBI warning it received more than 1,600 SIM swapping reports last year — more than three times the number in 2018-2020 combined.
How to stop SIM Swapping
Freund suggested that you contact your cell network to activate or request all account security features. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon offer additional PIN codes you can require for any transfer or porting of your phone number. “This makes it less likely that fraudsters could successfully impersonate me to your carrier,” he stated.
Freund and Ochoa both advised that SIM-swapping victims should immediately contact their network, reset their passwords, contact their banks and credit card companies and call the police.
Freund stated, “The earlier you act the better your chances are of limiting the damage.”
