US Authorities charged nine individuals over Crypto Thefts

Last week, US authorities charged nine individuals with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. These nine individuals were part of a cybercrime ring who stole cryptocurrencies by hijacking sim cards and phone numbers. The group, known as “The Community”, consists of 8 Americans and an Irishman. Their fraudulent activities spread across Florida, California, Iowa, New York, Missouri, Connecticut, and Arizona.

After further investigation, it was found that three of the members from the group were former employees at mobile phone providers. It helped them to gain personal data from their companies’ subscribers. The ring used Discord and Telegram to access data. The scammers reportedly obtained victim’s information then either bribing or impersonating cellular service company employees to obtain a new SIM card activated with the victim’s information.

The US law enforcement agencies are looking to deport the Irishman belonging to the scam that amounted nearly $2.5 million. The course of action was first suspected when a mother in Michigan overheard her son pretending to be an AT&T employee and called investigators. Later, investigators found out necessary data that the ring had obtained. 

The US Department of Justice further said:

“The indictment alleges that, once “The Community” had control of a victim’s phone number, the phone number was leveraged as a gateway to gain control of online accounts such as a victim’s email, cloud storage, and cryptocurrency exchange accounts.  For example, “The Community” would use their control of victims’ phone numbers to reset passwords on online accounts and/or request two-factor authentication (2FA) codes that allowed them to bypass security measures.”