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Cops Accuse 20-Year-Old College Student of Stealing More Than $5 Million in Bitcoin by Hijacking Phone Numbers (vice.com)
California authorities say a 20-year-old college student hijacked more than 40 phone numbers to steal $5 million in Bitcoin, including some from cryptocurrency investors at a blockchain conference Consensus. Motherboard, which broke the story citing court documents: This is the first reported case of an alleged hacker who was using SIM swapping (also known as SIM hijacking or Port Out Scam) specifically to target people in the blockchain and cryptocurrency worlds.
Joel Ortiz was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport on his way to Europe, according to sources close to the investigation, who said Ortiz was flashing a Gucci bag as part of a recent spending spree they believe was financed by the alleged crimes. He is facing 28 charges: 13 counts of identity theft, 13 counts of hacking, and two counts of grand theft, according to the complaint filed against him on the day before his arrest.
Joel Ortiz was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport on his way to Europe, according to sources close to the investigation, who said Ortiz was flashing a Gucci bag as part of a recent spending spree they believe was financed by the alleged crimes. He is facing 28 charges: 13 counts of identity theft, 13 counts of hacking, and two counts of grand theft, according to the complaint filed against him on the day before his arrest.
He should have run the scam from abroad and used the money to buy residence in a non-extradition country... In all seriousness: he used his own phone and expected not to be caught?
Two more points:
(1) $1 million bail is more than many murderers get. This shows the priorities of the state -- fortunes of tech squillionaires are worth more than human lives.
(2) The phone companies that apparently make SIMs stupidly easy to port-out should share the blame.
It's pretty easy to wash bitcoins. I'm thinking this person did not do that. Since they did not actually purchase the bitcoins, there is no tie to them on the blockchain. Send the bitcoins anonymous online converter and convert the bitcions to ethereum, I ran through the process once just to see how it worked, but can't remember the name of the service at the moment. They are out there though. They generate a temporary wallet then send the coins back to you on a wallet you provide, which you then never have to use again. Then convert the ethereum (or litecoin, whatever) to Monero. After that use a separate online converter to convert your Monero back to bitcoin. Transfer the bitcoins to a hardware wallet. At that point you have generally removed all blockchain connections. You want to do all of this on new virgin equipment and networks not connected to you in any way. I'm way more interested in how the bitcoins were obtained in the first place. How can you access a coinbase or similar account with someone's phone number?
My housemate, who had land line phone service in his name, moved out. I called up the phone company, and told them I needed to put the phone in my name. They told me that for security reasons my ex housemate had to do that himself. So I asked them, "So, if I hang up and call you right back claiming to be him, you'll put the phone in my name?" There reply was, "Yes." I did, and they did.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.