Crypto Hack Victim Wins Case After Sim Swap Attack, Gains $75 Million

Crypto hack victim Michael Terpin won the case in California’s Supreme Court and received an award of $75.8 million. The investor and entrepreneur sued a man who he claims stole his crypto assets and we are about to find out more in the latest cryptocurrency news.

Terpin is also pursuing damages from AT&T and other members who were defending the 21-year old criminal. The defendant Nicolas Truglia is currently living in New York and has been arrested for six other crimes. The investigation shows that he and his gang were involved in crypto-related activities some of them were still on-going when he was arrested.

However, despite being awarded and winning the case, Terpin is not stopping here. The blockchain entrepreneur and crypto hack victim will be suing AT&T for an additional $224 million. He pointed out in a statement:

 “We, of course, are still actively pursuing our federal court case against AT&T, whose gross negligence we contend allowed these crimes to occur.’’

Truglia was a part of a criminal gang that used the SIM swapping method which was called ‘’The Community.’’ SIM swapping is when someone takes control over your phone and phone number and swaps it with a new SIM. It also requires gathering data on the target and then getting a new SIM card with the victim’s name and phone number. As it was explained by Andrew Blaich:

 “There are many public cases of attackers social engineering their way through a cellular company’s representative to get a SIM card issued for an account the attacker doesn’t own or have access to. It appears to be easy to do as all you need is a willing/susceptible representative at any cellular phone store.”

SIM Swapping usually targets the customer’s service that uses SMS notification since the messages are not encrypted. AT&T has a SIM swapping prevention system which is ironic given the case. Michael Terpin was reportedly provided high-risk protection. That number was only known to the victim and his wife, as the altcoin news reported. The court documents stated:

“Even after AT&T had placed vaunted additional protection on his account after an earlier hacking incident, an imposter posing as Mr. Terpin was able to easily obtain Mr. Terpin’s telephone number from an insider cooperating with the hacker without the AT&T store employee requiring him to present valid identification or to give Mr. Terpin’s required password.”