Another AT&T SIM Swapping Attack Hits Three Crypto Executives

Another AT&T SIM swapping attack has just targeted three crypto executives that attended the Consensus 2018 and we are reading more about it in the cryptonews today.

The head of Strategy for VideoCoin Seth Shapiro alleged in his lawsuit that was filed on October 17^th in the US District Court for the Central District of California that the cell carrier basically helped the hackers by granting them repeated access to his SIM card allowing them to empty out his wallets on 11 exchanges and stealing $1.8 million dollars.

In his 58-page complaint, Shapiro laid out an elaborate web of inside men in the company and an internal conspiracy and back to back SIM swaps that have already landed at least two employees at the company in a criminal court.  An excerpt from the lawsuit states:

 “By utilizing their control over Mr. Shapiro’s AT&T cell phone number—and the control of additional accounts (such as his email) secured through that number by utilizing two factor authentication—these third-party hackers were able to access Mr. Shapiro’s accounts on various cryptocurrency exchange platforms, including the accounts he controlled on behalf of his business venture. The hackers then transferred Mr. Shapiro’s currency from Mr. Shapiro’s accounts into accounts that they controlled. In all, they stole more than $1.8 million from Mr. Shapiro in the two consecutive SIM swap attacks on May 16, 2018.”

The lawsuit alleged that ex-AT&T employees from Tucson, Arizona played a key role in the operation. Jarrett White and Robert Jack received $4,300 and $585 from the hackers referred to in the court documents as ‘’The Community’’ to feed the six-man group a stream of insider intel. This was used as a backdoor that gave ‘’The Community’’ access to Shapiro’s cellphone according to the documents. Shapiro even stated that $1,757 million stolen, $1 million was his and the other part belonged to other people that invested in crypto projects with him.

By doing another AT&T SIM Swapping attack, the thieves targeted Chris Kitze and Fiorenzi Villani which were not mentioned in the court filing and all three executives are now partners in series of crypto PR companies. They were all attending a conference produced by the popular crypto swapping victim, Michael Terpin who also sued AT&T for a SIM heist that cost him more than $2 million.

Shapiro, Kitze, and Terpin are all members of the Pro Top Company Services and advertise crypto investment funds.