First SIM Swapping Hacker Convicted, Gets 10 Years in Prison

A 20-year-old college student Joel Ortiz to face 10 years in prison for stealing $5 Million in cryptocurrency through SIM hijacking attacks and he is the first person to get convicted.

According to Motherboard he Hijacked more than 40 victims and swapped their phone numbers to the SIM card owned by hackers.

SIM-swapping or SIM Hijacking is the technique used by criminals to register an already existing number on a new SIM card, by having control over the phone number attackers can bypass 2FA authentication and reset the passwords to gain access to the victim’s accounts.

Ortiz accepted the plea last week and the authorities believe he is the first person convicted for SIM swapping fraud.

Authorities arrested Ortiz last year for hijacking phone numbers and using them to then hack into emails, social media accounts, and online Bitcoin wallets.

“We think justice has been served. And hopefully, this is a strong message to that community,” Samy Tarazi on of the investigator in the Ortiz case to Motherboard.

Nicholas Truglia also arrested last year for stealing $1 million through SIM-swapping scheme and he is pending for extradition to Santa Clara.

Last January a Mumbai businessman lost Rs. 1.86cr from his bank account, attackers obtained the unique SIM number and have initiated the SIM swap.

The SIM swapping attacks are in raise and anybody can fall prey to it.

You can follow us on LinkedinTwitterFacebook for daily Cybersecurity updates also you can take the Best Cybersecurity courses online to keep your self-updated.

Hacker Group Stolen $5 Million Through SIM Swapping Hacks

SIM Swapping Hacker Group Who Managed to Steal $80,000 Worth of Cryptocurrency Got Arrested

Gurubaran

Gurubaran is a co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security. He has 10+ years of experience as a Security Consultant, Editor, and Analyst in cybersecurity, technology, and communications.

Recent Posts

Secure Ideas Achieves CREST Accreditation and CMMC Level 1 Compliance

Secure Ideas, a premier provider of penetration testing and security consulting services, proudly announces its…

7 hours ago

New Phishing Campaign Targets Investors to Steal Login Credentials

Symantec has recently identified a sophisticated phishing campaign targeting users of Monex Securities (マネックス証券), a…

7 hours ago

UAC-0219 Hackers Leverage WRECKSTEEL PowerShell Stealer to Extract Data from Computers

In a concerning development, CERT-UA, Ukraine's Computer Emergency Response Team, has reported a series of…

7 hours ago

Hunters International Linked to Hive Ransomware in Attacks on Windows, Linux, and ESXi Systems

Hunters International, a ransomware group suspected to be a rebrand of the infamous Hive ransomware,…

7 hours ago

Qilin Operators Imitate ScreenConnect Login Page to Deploy Ransomware and Gain Admin Access

In a recent cyberattack attributed to the Qilin ransomware group, threat actors successfully compromised a…

7 hours ago

Operation HollowQuill Uses Malicious PDFs to Target Academic and Government Networks

A newly uncovered cyber-espionage campaign, dubbed Operation HollowQuill, has been identified as targeting academic, governmental,…

7 hours ago