Half a million dollar worth of Cryptocurrency were stolen with SIM swapping

[SONG GEET]

Two Massachusetts mans had targeted executives working for cryptocurrency related organization thinking they will be owning large amount of cryptocurrency and have very high-value social media accounts. Meiggs and Harrington used a illegal method of hacking called SIM swapping to access social media accounts of victims and in some cases to steal cryptocurrency using the sensitive information collected via those hacked social media accounts.

According to US department of justice, these two men have targeted more than ten victims across US and have successfully stole or tried to steal atleast half of million dollar worth of cryptocurrency from them.

Source: https://altcoin.media/2019/11/14/two-men-were-arrested-in-us-for-stealing-over-500000-worth-of-cryptocurrency/

[pakhitheboss]

Nothing and no one is safe, whatever security you put in place these criminals somehow do get access to the safe. Now they will rot in jail for the rest of their lives. If they could have only used their brilliant minds for some constructive work, they would have been treated as heroes.

[Casdinyard]

Seriously, hackers are getting clever and wiser.
And I'm not surprised anymore as even on the recent news about the bug found on iphones as  it can spy on the camera of iphone users. Yeah, it's a little bit off topic but this should be remind us that technology is getting across our privacy.

Likewise, better yet not to put any private info related to cryptos in our social media. Better be safe than sorry.

[MURONDI]

now many hackers are scattered on social media, with various ways to fool the target, hackers are always innovating and getting smarter at doing the action, even just buying a SIM can steal someone's data, we must be vigilant and wise in using social media.

[Baofeng]

Hackers will always be one step ahead of the game. And Sim swapping is not new, the problem is that crypto investors or at least those who hold huge amount of coins should know how to protect their assets.
We are in a dangerous cat and mouse game with cyber criminals and everyone should equip themselves on how to better protect our cryptos, like limiting your personal info you share online.

[piebeyb]

this is my thinking, if one day the function of bitcoin becomes a digital payment instrument rather than paper currency, do many robbers and thieves throw away their weapons and learn to be robbers and thieves online, I think it could happen they just sit and don't have to sweat it out to rob 

[CryptoBry]

Two Massachusetts men had targeted executives working for cryptocurrency related organization thinking they will be owning large amount of cryptocurrency and have very high-value social media accounts. Meiggs and Harrington used an illegal method of hacking called SIM swapping to access social media accounts of victims and in some cases to steal cryptocurrency using the sensitive information collected via those hacked social media accounts. According to US department of justice, these two men have targeted more than ten victims across US and have successfully stole or tried to steal at least half of million dollar worth of cryptocurrency from them.

One, this must be a new way of hacking into people's social media accounts called SIM swapping and it is good that this is exposed as this early so that the same strategy can be nipped right in the bud. Personally, id o find this way impressive though they are using the technology for evil reason which we should not tolerate in any way.

Second, they are targeting people connected with cryptocurrency who I assumed should have been more aware with securities issues all around them and this is showing us that no one can really be safe these days and that if these people can be victims then anybody can be.

Third, it is a good thing that the possible amount of the hacks is just worth half a million a dollar and not in the level of the many cryptocurrency exchanges who feel victims of this maneuvering.

[Coyster]

Anybody who holds cryptocurrency right now and does not do much to protect and safeguard his or her assets/coins is doing the wrong thing, even though the methods this scammers use are methods we know about, we still need to be one step ahead by leaving no stone unturned and closing every loophole.

If you go to the scam accusation section and the beginners and help section, you'll see that so many scammers are making attempts daily to steal our coins, we need to implement all the forms of rearguard we know of, of course the forum has so many posts about security,safety,protection of our coins, this would enable us protect ourselves, do not forget to leave coins on exchanges as well, don't be greedy and "if it's not your keys, it's not your coins".

[sureshnsnet]

Yesterday only I read about someone loses around 24 million worth of cryptocurrency due to hackers used Sim swapping mothed and today one more article published about half a million dollars worth cryptocurrency stolen with Sim swapping.

hackers are finding new ways to hack social media accounts with SIM Swapping mothed so how can we survive our social media accounts form those hackers. I think it will increase more in the coming days so be safe.

[Kyraishi]

Seriously, hackers are getting clever and wiser.

The sad part is that hacks and issues like these have been around for several years now, it was possible 4-5 years ago, and a lot of phone companies are now requiring ID or verification for you to be able to order a sim with the same phone number (which is the most crucial step of performing one of these hacks).

Other then that, the other pretty big issue related to this, is why do people with several thousands of dollars worth of crypto-currency, still use online wallets? Spend the 100 on a ledger and don't risk this happening, come on people, use your common sense.

[mk4]

this is my thinking, if one day the function of bitcoin becomes a digital payment instrument rather than paper currency, do many robbers and thieves throw away their weapons and learn to be robbers and thieves online, I think it could happen they just sit and don't have to sweat it out to rob 

Well, there will still always be robbers that are going to take funds by force physically. While doing the thieving online can be more effective for them as they could potentially get away without even exposing a single piece of their personal information, doing it physically might be easier for them if they know their target personally. Take a good read at this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5112748.0

https://xkcd.com/538/

[piebeyb]

this is my thinking, if one day the function of bitcoin becomes a digital payment instrument rather than paper currency, do many robbers and thieves throw away their weapons and learn to be robbers and thieves online, I think it could happen they just sit and don't have to sweat it out to rob 

Well, there will still always be robbers that are going to take funds by force physically. While doing the thieving online can be more effective for them as they could potentially get away without even exposing a single piece of their personal information, doing it physically might be easier for them if they know their target personally. Take a good read at this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5112748.0

https://xkcd.com/538/

thank you for the recommendation and I have seen it, I just share thoughts sometimes people's thoughts are different, sometimes many people think narrowly about this because the situation of each country is different, I will illustrate a little of my thoughts, if we are in the country fully the poverty line and if robbers meet us on the road while we don't give him money, then our lives are at stake we could be killed on the spot, so is your money more valuable than your life?
I do not correct your thoughts and others, losing money we can still find and replace but losing lives can never be replaced

[Baby Dragon]

now many hackers are scattered on social media, with various ways to fool the target, hackers are always innovating and getting smarter at doing the action, even just buying a SIM can steal someone's data, we must be vigilant and wise in using social media.

We can't really assure ourselves that we are safe particularly these days that scammers are looking for some ways to deceive us and take advantage of us that is why we need to be cautious and attentive so that we can avoid falling into some sort of scam. That is the reason it is always suggested to have research when it comes to these things because it is one of the best ways to find out if it's safe or not, maybe it's a bit laborious but it is worth it knowing that your funds and assets are in a safe place.

[boyptc]

Are these guys also related to the loss of Michael Terpin who just lost around $24 million of bitcoins due to sim swapping?

We have a thread for that guy.

--> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5201498.0

[lizarder]

Hackers always have a way to hack the system in order to get what they want, especially with cryptocurrency.

Making a pretty good security is one way to minimize the hacking action on our account.

of course the basic recommendation is to always use 2fa on our account so that at the very least, the account will have double security in addition to only using a password

[shoreno]

i have heard simillar incidents before and the was also from sim swapping but until now i dont know how this sim swapping work but i know what is a sim card is .

my question is how can they get acces to your sim if you are the only owner of it ?  or maybe when we bought sims on the market ?  this is a new serious case that we should be aware of because sims have our 2fa and that means hackers can get acces to our all accounts pretty easily .

[ranochigo]

It's just a simple attack involving social engineering of the telecom companies. It's really nothing new and that this kinds of attacks is fairly commonly used to target accounts that were secured with their phones. These attacks are particularly vulnerable with sites who uses SMS based authentication instead of token based authentication. With the accounts obtained, the attackers would get more information to be used and social engineer their next target.

The main prevention is to not store large amounts of coins online.

[youdacapt]

Are these guys also related to the loss of Michael Terpin who just lost around $24 million of bitcoins due to sim swapping?

We have a thread for that guy.

--> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5201498.0

I think so too, the two threads are connected. If this case began in January 2018, there are now many updates on SIM adjustments to avoid this. Sim swap mode is more dangerous because it is able to access email and devices as a whole, especially smartphones. The level of security must be more layered including the use of fingerprints and face recognition.

[Sadlife]

that's why they are called HACKER because of their extra abilities that only few people has,the problem is they are using for bad actions.
how many hacking strategy has been used in crypto?and how many victims?specially in social media platforms in which the easiest way to access ones account?nothings new about this and there will be another in future.
just always keep precautions and preventive measures for us not to become one of the victims.