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College Student Who Stole More Than $5 Million in Cryptocurrency By SIM Swapping Gets 10 Years in Prison -- First Person To Be Sentenced For the Crime (vice.com)

Posted by msmash on from the setting-precedence dept.

A 20-year-old college student who was accused of stealing more than $5 million in cryptocurrency in a slew of SIM hijacking attacks is the first person to be sentenced for the crime. From a report: A college student who stole more than $5 million in cryptocurrency by hijacking the phone numbers of around 40 victims pleaded guilty and accepted a plea deal of 10 years in prison, Motherboard has learned. Joel Ortiz accepted the plea deal last week, Erin West, the Deputy District Attorney in Santa Clara County, California, told Motherboard during a meeting on Thursday. The authorities believe Ortiz is the first person to be convicted of a crime for SIM swapping, an increasingly popular and damaging hack.

The prosecutors and agents who have been investigating these hacks celebrated the conviction, and said they hope that this will serve as an example for the other alleged criminals who have already been arrested, as well as the ones who have yet to be caught. "We think justice has been served. And hopefully this is a strong message to that community," Samy Tarazi, one of the agents who investigated the Ortiz case, told me. Ortiz is one af a handful of SIM swappers who have been arrested in the last year for hijacking phone numbers and using them to then hack into emails, social media accounts, and online Bitcoin wallets.

4 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Am I supposed to feel sorry ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... because he is a "college kid"?

    A thieve is a thieve regardless of the level of education he/she has.

    1. Re:Am I supposed to feel sorry ... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, you are supposed to feel sorry that stealing Monopoly money only agreed upon by a relative few people

      That's a massive, massive misrepresentation of reality.

      *You* clearly don't like bitcoin but that's irrelevant. It has a market cap of 60 billion dollars, about the same as Phillip Morris.

      You can equally well level your accusaions against shares in that company. They are paper money, not many people hold them (i.e. the value is agreed by relatively few people) and the organisation is a deeply hateful one.

      It doesn't matter though. The money can be got in and out easily and it's REAL money. The guy stole 5 million real dollars whether or not you personally happen to like that kind of value.

      If nothing else, feel sorry for the tax dollars being spent on keeping this guy out of society for ten years rather than slapping him with a huge fine and forcing him to work it off.

      Your previous argument has no bearing on that. The relative merits of prison vs non custodial sentances is irrelevant to you not liking the money he stole. Shame really because your second point is a much more interesting one, but it's realy overshadowed by the first.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    2. Re:Am I supposed to feel sorry ... by bloodhawk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't care whether it is real money or monopoly money or lollipops, The guy is a thief, he stole what others valued and obviously what he himself valued and he did not do this once, but at least 20 times He deserves everything he got.

    3. Re:Am I supposed to feel sorry ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Meanwhile, the "Wall Street" mob is still free ...

      Considering that crypto-currency is not a legal form
      of currency, (IOWs, I can't pay my mortgage in bit-coin)
      what was the statue that was broken?

      CAP === 'domicile'