Cryptocurrency fraud with SIM cards resulted in $ 250,000 stolen by criminals

According to the San Antonio prosecutor’s office in the United States, a married couple pleaded guilty to fraud using a SIM card spoofing scheme that brought them at least $ 250,000 in cryptocurrency.

According to court documents, Andrew Trujillo and Zena Dawson devised a scheme to copy SIM card data and forward short messages from customers' cell phones while they were being serviced at the local office of AT&T, the cellular operator where Dawson worked.

Since AT&T's basic tariff solution requires mobile devices to be tied to a cellular provider, the attackers had both the mobile device and the SIM card tied to it in their hands during the service.

Dawson added Trujillo as an authorized user of the account administration service, where he edited the victims' SIM card data and transferred their information to the SIM cards of his mobile devices. This allowed them to intercept phone and text messages and use them to compromise other accounts of the phone owner.

The pair was then able to access various cryptocurrency services of their victims and transfer about $ 250,000 worth of digital assets to their accounts. The San Antonio court is expected to convict the pair in the near future. Each of the participants in the fraudulent scheme faces up to 5 years in prison.

As a reminder, in November 2022, it became known about a married couple who tried to sell secret data related to the design of nuclear-powered warships for cryptocurrency. Jonathan Toebbe and Diana Toebbe were sentenced to 19 and 20 years in prison for espionage. The couple transmitted classified information on SD cards, which they hid in peanut butter sandwiches, gum wrappers, and band-aids.