- A Canadian man was concerned in 17 SIM swap assaults in 2023.
- These assaults resulted within the theft of over $4.5M from crypto professionals.
- SIM swapping is transferring a sufferer’s quantity to a hacker’s SIM for account entry.
A far-reaching investigation has uncovered a Canadian man’s involvement in a spree of ‘SIM Swap’ assaults that drained tens of millions from crypto professionals this yr.
Findings by pseudonymous sleuth ZachXBT revealed a person, recognized as “Yahya,” assisted in 17 SIM swaps in 2023 that resulted in over $4.5 million in stolen funds.
SIM swapping refers to a method the place scammers persuade cellphone carriers to switch a sufferer’s quantity to a SIM card managed by hackers. This grants entry to accounts linked to the compromised cellphone quantity.
As per the investigation, Yahya offered private particulars on targets to steer hacker “Skenkir,” who executed the cellphone hijackings primarily aimed toward U.S. residents. Yahya obtained a reduce of as much as 15% of the stolen belongings as fee.
Among the many named victims are — Yuga Labs CEO Daniel Alegre, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, crypto influencer Bitboy, the Aptos Basis, PleasrDAO, and lots of NFT holders.
In a single instance, Yahya pocketed $250,000 following a July 2022 assault on the Gutter Cat Gang group that incurred $720,000 in losses. In complete, Yahya’s pockets obtained over $720,000 in Ethereum from his position throughout the 17 assaults.
Earlier, stories from ZachXBT revealed that 54 outstanding crypto figures fell prey to SIM swapping schemes in 2023, amounting to over $13 million in mixed theft. ZachXBT talked about that the scammer confirmed little regret for his actions when confronted and quipped that,
Like bro, its some huge cash they providing only for lookups.
The investigation offers further perception into the infrastructure enabling these devastating cybercrimes throughout the cryptocurrency business. Regulation enforcement has but to supply updates on holding the perpetrators accountable.
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