Security News > 2021 > August > SIM swap scammer pleads guilty to Instagram account hijacks, crypto theft
Declan Harrington, a Massachusetts man charged two years ago for his alleged involvement in a series of SIM swapping attacks, pleaded guilty to stealing cryptocurrency from multiple victims and hijacking the Instagram account of others.
Harrington was charged with Eric Meiggs in November 2019 for targeting the owners of high-value Instagram and Tumblr accounts.
In all, through multiple SIM swapping attacks and death threats, the two defendants stole more than $530,000 worth of cryptocurrency from at least ten victims across the US and took control of multiple OG social media accounts.
Leveraging the victims' hijacked phone numbers to gain unauthorized access to their online accounts, including email accounts, social media accounts, and cryptocurrency accounts.
Using their access to victims' accounts to take over and steal their account handles and their cryptocurrency.
Selling or otherwise transferring victims' log-in credentials, account handles, and cryptocurrency.