Montreal’s prosecutor’s office has filed four charges of $50 million in cryptocurrency fraud involving the substitution of SIM cards against an 18-year-old hacker. This was reported by local media.
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The indictment says that Bensaci was in a gang robbing Canadian and American crypto holders. SIM swapping helped attackers bypass most authentication mechanisms and gain access to digital assets.
All thefts were committed in the spring of 2018, and the gang chose its victims from among the participants of the New York Consensus conference.
Among the alleged victims were also well-known Canadian cryptographers Don and Alex Tapscott, co-authors of the bestseller about blockchain. Don Tapscott confirmed that in 2019, a hacker tried to steal digital assets from his company, but the attempt had no success.
Samy Bensaci was arrested at the end of the fall of 2019, but in December he was released on bail of $153 thousand, banning the use of devices with Internet access, as well as of owning or exchanging any crypto.
Recall, that in the late fall of 2019, scammers were arrested in the USA. They deceived Bitcoin businessmen by several hundred thousand dollars with the help of a SIM swap.
With the advent of the blockchain and the first cryptocurrencies, many began to be interested in this area. Having sensed how large sums are spinning here, the most ordinary criminals moved into the world of crypto. You can read our special article to know more about crypto fraudsters.