Teen crook hacked into 75 phones and stole $1M in cryptocurrency: authorities

[Wintersoldier]

Sim swapping technique is slowly becoming a favourite instrument for commuting financial crime. What can be done to prevent this faud?

Apply for private number with the service provider, your number never gets displayed. There is a cost involved.
Never use the number registered with banks for personal use, use it only for financial transaction.
Use condom USB to charge your phone in public.
Install anti malware on your phone.

You can reduce the chance of getting your phone hacked by following the above mentioned.

I've just heard from my friend that there should be a country that restricts individual to only have one mobile number meaning to say that the simcard they will going to use is only for them and cannot be used by others, this is in fact will provide huge benefits as anti theft and anti hack as well but will need the support of the government to regulate it. In addition, I think storing cryptocurrency to wallets in mobile phones and even in PC is actually not the best idea to secure it. There are malwares that records that screen of the pc and mobile and it is likely for them to hack our accounts. A hardware wallet which hides the private key is our only hope to secure huge amount of funds.

[CryptoBry]

It's just a matter of time before these bad eggs are going to be caught, either they make a mistakes or authorities are simply hunting them down. 5-10 years sentence will be enough for this criminals? What do you think?

I think it is really about time that laws on these aspects should be modernized and be more adopted to the existence of digital assets and cryptocurrency. And of course, we can be sending a strong message to hackers if penalties can be doubled or even tripled. A mess like this should have no place in our modern interconnected society as these are the people who are always looking for weaknesses or loopholes in the current technological set-up. We don't want more and more people getting part of the victim statistics.

[Baby Dragon]

It's just a matter of time before these bad eggs are going to be caught, either they make a mistakes or authorities are simply hunting them down. 5-10 years sentence will be enough for this criminals? What do you think?

Good to hear these kind of positive news as the criminals are getting caught left and right for their past and we need harsh punishment and the most important thing is they need to confiscate all the loot plus their interest so that everyone will think twice before going after easy money, i have not seen in the article whether the authorities are returning the asset back or valuation that was stolen during that time.

Hackers these days are getting wiser and they are willing to do anything to get what they want, it's sad to see that even teens are getting engaged into illegal activities like this. Even if you have secured yourself, those hackers are wise enough to find some ways to stole your funds and that is the reason why we should be more cautious and attentive. It is indeed good to hear that they are going to suffer the consequences of their actions and a decade is enough because they should learn from their mistakes and promise not to do it again though we can't literally assure that they will stop after that incident but it will make them realize.

[adaseb]

The reason why this was easy for him to do is because people commonly lose their phone, first thing they do is go to a phone kiosk at a mall, say they lost their phone, give their name and number and sometimes the clerk doesn't ask for more verification. They don''t ask for more info because they think "Why would someone want to steal someone elses phone number"?. Or he had some friend who worked at a phone store who did these sim swaps.

I am assuming that the victims all used Coinbase and used Authy, because the Google 2FA is more of an offline type of 2FA and more secure. The other issue could of been Gmail. I am assuming they would simply call Gmail, say they forgot their password and as long as they called from the phone number on file they would reset the password for them.

[FaithInCrypto]

Aren't people who lost their sim should've reported their sim stolen so that it could be blocked or something? That way it couldn't be used to something like this. That's a huge amount of money and I'm happy that he gets the right punishment he deserves.

[carlisle1]

how come that these crooks can just do things like this as simple he can do?while people are struggling to earn bucks small by small and these people taking just like that.

i think the punishments on this kind of case must be higher and they will suffer from stealing hard earned money .and put behind bars for longer time than what is given right now.

[minersday]

All these hackers and scammers will be fished out sooner or later. I don't know why some folks always plan to make the short cut route to riches, Damn it folks, there is no shortcut to life. Work hard and smart and your labour will merit to something in future. Stealing over such a huge amount of cryptocurrencies deserves a serious punishment. I think he deserves 10 years to serve as deterrent to others who commit such atrocities.

[gabbie2010]

The stupid scammer must have perpetuate this nefarious act with a high sophistication and dexterity a whopping 75  phones hacked I was very glad he was fished out and already facing prosecution had it been he has hidden without any trace then I would have assumed that engaging in cryptos related activities is now very risky and unworthy.

[X-ray]

I hope this teen got sentenced into serious punishment and so that it could act as a warning for other  people with malicious intention.

To be honest I also think that some people deserve to be robbed,
But it isn't the lazy rich people for me it should be the corrupt people those who also steal from the people they should be the one's who deserve to get a taste of their own medicine.

You know some people are just that careless and saying that they deserve to be robbed is not a good thing because they don't even want that to happen in first place. Not saying BS but sometime people got the be careless naturally since they were born.

[aomakun]

with a sentence of 5-10 years can destroy their mentality, and I think after they are free they will do good because the prison also makes a goal so that people can return to doing good in social life after they are free and I think quite comparable because they also definitely pay a fine.

[makishart]

with a sentence of 5-10 years can destroy their mentality, and I think after they are free they will do good because the prison also makes a goal so that people can return to doing good in social life after they are free and I think quite comparable because they also definitely pay a fine.

A sneak will always be a sneak even after after shedding its skin so being prisoned doesn't guarantee that they will do a good deeds in the future but it's for sure could make people think twice before doing wicked things and it's a good thing that these people being prisoned god knows what they'll do with the money and probably for something useless or even illegal.

[Blitzboy]

Not a support for thieves, but I'm really impressed by what a 19-year-old guy can do. He's really talented, but this talent is not being used, it's a pity. Anyway, recently, a lot of thieves have been arrested, which is a good thing. The authorities have been doing their job very well. With cryptocurrencies, we can't know when we're hacked, everything is dangerous, even with your phone.

[blckhawk]

It's a common exploit. Even the CEO of Twitter has been victim of such method, though only used to manipulate his Twitter account. I think the problem relies on the SIM service providers. They should impose restrictions on who can only make valid SIM swap to their accounts. If in that point, it is already secure, then these types of hacks would be lessen.

[stompix]

Not a support for thieves, but I'm really impressed by what a 19-year-old guy can do. He's really talented, but this talent is not being used, it's a pity.

Taletended in what?
Really, stop using the word "hacker" and "hack" there is nothing like this happening here!
He is simply a con artist who constantly goes to stores and asks clerks for a new sim card with the victims's number because he "lost" it.
That's all they do, nothing high tech, all you need is to to be a good snake oil salesman.

Authorities executed search warrants on Selassie’s Brooklyn and California residences, where they seized half a dozen iPhones, two Rolex watches, a monogrammed Gucci wallet and numerous pieces of high-end jewelry, according to court papers.

Indeed, such a smart and talented boy he was, you realize how much talent those thieves have just by looking at what they purchase.

[airdnasxela]

Even it is a good thing that they were able to caught the suspect, it still bothers me. Because it's a teen! Meaning all ages with enough knowledge, they can really do bad things for their own. 19 is still a young age yet me manage to steal big amount of money. It only means that cryptocurrency hacking are growing, even young age can do it. The more it grows, the lesser the possibility that the government will approve the idea of cryptocurrency. How can we achieve mass adoption when news like this can grow fud to other people?

[fiulpro]

I think instead of 5-7 years and Making new laws for cryptocurrencies they should be given equivalent life sentence with respect to the people who do frauds in millions , just because it's Cryptocurrency doesn't mean it's fake money ..
5-7-10 years depends , but they shouldn't be discriminated. Money doesn't appear out of thin air , money is money government should realize that .

[Lucius]

He is simply a con artist who constantly goes to stores and asks clerks for a new sim card with the victims's number because he "lost" it.
That's all they do, nothing high tech, all you need is to to be a good snake oil salesman.

I agree that this is not a classic hack, but how he gets phone numbers of potential victims? I'm sure it's not random guessing of numbers, it really wouldn't make any sense. 2 accounts and $1 million seems like a perfectly targeted attack.

It is a big responsibility on the telecom companies that provide replacement SIM cards very easily, sometimes without any verification. I personally had the experience of having my SIM card replaced in less than 1 minute without ever asking for verification. I just walked into my carrier's store, said my name and phone number, and got a new card. After that, I wouldn't use any SIM-related service that has anything to do with something as sensitive as cryptocurrency.

[Baofeng]

Not a support for thieves, but I'm really impressed by what a 19-year-old guy can do. He's really talented, but this talent is not being used, it's a pity. Anyway, recently, a lot of thieves have been arrested, which is a good thing. The authorities have been doing their job very well. With cryptocurrencies, we can't know when we're hacked, everything is dangerous, even with your phone.

I wouldn't call it a talent, he has skills that he uses in a bad way so he is criminal by definition. He could have some accomplice here, I surmise that do that initial pre-staging for him and then he do everything from behind. One lesson though, sooner or later the full hands of the law will caught them. One thing that can be an advantage for him is that he is still very young, at least he can still mend ways once he got a second lease of life.

[bitgolden]

It's just a matter of time before these bad eggs are going to be caught, either they make a mistakes or authorities are simply hunting them down. 5-10 years sentence will be enough for this criminals? What do you think?

The truth is that this is not going to end, it's left for us all to learn to be very careful on how we handle our money account, you never know what may happen. This is not the first time that this kind of people have been caught and punished, they have been punished several times but despite that you still continue to see a lot of them popping up. So that's not going to change, we all just have to be very careful and avoid them.

I think this is a hot blow on uncle G who seems to be security concious and tend to offer one of the most secured email services.
So, why did gmail not detect unusual activities?

Gmail notifies users once there are suspicious activities in their account, but you get notified when someone has already accessed your account, so I'm very sure that the owners of the Gmail accounts got the alert that an unknown device accessed their Gmail. Good thing he was caught.

[stompix]

~

I agree that this is not a classic hack, but how he gets phone numbers of potential victims? I'm sure it's not random guessing of numbers, it really wouldn't make any sense. 2 accounts and $1 million seems like a perfectly targeted attack.

~ I just walked into my carrier's store, said my name and phone number, and got a new card.

Well, you answered the question a bit yourself...
You went in with only the number and the name and got it.

And phone numbers nowadays are so easy to get from guys working with cryptos, everyone is in telegram and WhatsApp groups and lots of people forget that giving your real phone number to strangers is not a good idea.
Sometimes I feel like it's harder to get those details from a girl you try to pick up in a bar than from the whole team of a crypto "project".