Security News > 2020 > July > It’s happened again: AT&T sued for allegedly transferring victim's number to thieves in $1.9m cryptocoin heist

AT&T has been sued for a second time over allegations its staff gave thieves control of a specific individual's cellphone number to steal a large chunk of cryptocurrency.

Seth Shapiro's $1.9m claim follows in the footsteps of Michael Terpin, who sued the gigantic US cellular network in 2018 for more or less the same thing: staff ported a subscriber's phone number to a hacker's SIM - a so-called SIM swap scam - allowing the miscreant to steal what Terpin claims in his case was $24m in cryptocurrency.

The store told him to get a new phone and SIM, which he did his lawsuit claimed that within minutes of getting service back and while still in the shop, the thieves struck again.

A criminal investigation led to charges against two AT&T employees who, it is alleged, assisted in shifting Shapiro's number to the crooks.

Amazingly, just as in the case of Michael Terpin, AT&T allegedly told Shapiro it would put in place special precautions to prevent any SIM hijackings: measures that failed when the pair were targeted.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/07/01/att_sim_swap_lawsuit_shapiro/