The United States law enforcement on Thursday arrested two men for their involvement in the , following the theft of cryptocurrencies and social media hijack.
Both the accused are in their early twenties and residents of the Massachusetts state in the US.
The perpetrators were charged with one count of conspiracy, eight counts of wire fraud, one count of computer fraud and abuse and one count of aggravated identity theft in the District Court in Boston, making it an eleven count indictment.
Per the official statement by the Department of Justice, both arrested were targeting executives of cryptocurrency companies and others who likely had significant amounts of cryptocurrency and those who had high value or “Original Gangster” social media account names.
A classic hacking technique
Both of them used the SIM swap hack along with other tactics to take control of the victims’ accounts and stole digitally valuable commodities including cryptocurrencies.
According to the authorities, the accused, named Eric Meiggs and Declan Harrington, stole more than $500,000 from at least ten identified victims. In addition to that, they took control of the social media accounts of over two victims.
In a SIM swapping hack, cybercriminals convince a victim’s cell phone carrier to reassign the victim’s cell phone number from the SIM card inside the victim’s cell phone to the SIM card inside a cell phone controlled by cybercriminals. Then they use the authentication process linked to the cell phone number to get access to digital accounts.
Earlier this month, a Florida-based law firm filed , two major telecom providers, after multiple customers fell victim of SIM swap hack, resulting in the theft of nearly $1.3 million in digital currencies.
In September, the US authorities also indicted two perpetrators . They also used the SIM swap technique to gain access to the platform’s CEO’s digital accounts.
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