2024

Baby

Circuit

ZachXBT

when

Telecommunications giant AT&amp;T is facing renewed legal challenges in a case linked to a SIM swap hack. A federal appeals court revived a lawsuit where a customer lost over $24 million in crypto after the company allegedly let hackers gain control of a phone number linked to their crypto accounts.
The legal battle began in 2020 when a crypto investor Michael Terpin sued Ellis Pinsky, accusing him of stealing $24 million worth of crypto through a <a href="https://www.cryptopolitan.com/trai-regulations-aim-to-curb-sim-swap-fraud/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">SIM swap</a>. However, Pinsky, just 15 at the time, allegedly bribed an AT&amp;T employee to transfer Terpin’s SIM card information. This allowed him to bypass the two-factor authentication for Terpin’s crypto wallet.
<h3 id="span-style-font-weight-400-24m-sim-swap-hack-case-revived-span">$24M SIM swap hack case revived</h3>
As per the <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/at-t-customer-revives-suit-over-24-million-cryptocurrency-hack" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">filings</a>, plaintiff Michael Terpin had claimed that the Federal Communications Act survived dismissal as he raised a triable issue. The lawsuit will examine whether AT&amp;T gave a hacker access to information protected by the act when it enabled the hacker to perform a “SIM swap”.
This complex case earned Pinsky the nickname “Baby Al Capone.” The Ninth Circuit Court had recently upheld several rulings in AT&amp;T’s favor. However, the court reinstated a key claim under Section 222 of the Federal Communications Act.
This suggests that Terpin can continue to pursue $24 million in damages, plus interest and attorney’s fees which turns out to be around $45 million from the communication giant.
Michael Terpin has previously sued alleged hacker Ellis Pinsky for $71.4 million. Pinsky had returned around $2 million. The crypto investor won a $75.8 million lawsuit in 2019 against Baby Al Capone’s accomplice, Nicholas Truglia.
Pinsky is now a New York University graduate. He had reportedly agreed to testify against AT&amp;T in the ongoing case. This move could heavily impact the legal scope of telecom companies.
<h3 id="span-style-font-weight-400-sim-swap-hacks-have-become-a-problem-span">Sim swap hacks have become a problem&nbsp;</h3>
On-chain sleuth, ZachXBT commented on the matter. He stated that, hopefully, Terpin will see some success against AT&amp;T. He suggested that US telecom companies need to be held accountable for all of these SIM swaps.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
 Hopefully Terpin see some success against ATT as US telecom companies need to be held accountable for all of these SIM swaps…. <a href="https://t.co/4uXB0PGqY6" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://t.co/4uXB0PGqY6</a>
 — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) <a href="https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1841723216517075303?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">October 3, 2024</a>
</blockquote>
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He referred to an investigation from August 2023, where he revealed that more than $13.3 million was stolen in 54 SIM swaps targeting the crypto community. He mentioned that when an account is compromised scammers try to create a sense of urgency with a fake claim to drain your assets.
ZachXBT advised never to use SMS 2FA and advised people to opt for an authenticator app or security key to secure accounts.

AT&T back in court over $24M SIM swap crypto heist

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