Security News > 2023 > November > 'Serial cybercriminal and scammer' jailed for 8 years, told to pay back $1.2M
A Los Angeles man has been jailed after pulling off SIM-swap attacks on victims, hijacking social media accounts, committing fraud with Zelle payments, and impersonating Apple support.
Amir Hossein Golshan, 25, described in court documents as a "Serial cybercriminal and scammer," was sentenced to eight years in prison by a California federal court on Monday, and ordered to pay $1,218,526 in restitution.
Golshan then moved on to SIM swapping - in which the crook manages by social engineering or some other scheme to transfer a victim's phone number to the criminal's SIM, allowing passwords to be reset and social media accounts to be hijacked and misused for more fraud.
"Between defendant's Zelle merchant fraud and SIM swapping/social media account takeovers, defendant fraudulently induced approximately $82,000 in payments from approximately 500 victims, usually in increments of $300 to $500 per victim," the court documents stated.
In the months leading up to his arrest, Golshan moved into more lucrative cybercrimes, according to the Feds, including impersonating Apple Support personnel to gain unauthorized access to several victims' Apple iCloud accounts.
"He showed little remorse for his victims or being caught during his years of crime, believing that he could hide behind the anonymity of online screennames or VPNs, and that his victims - who were on the other side of the computer - would never find him." .