A college student who allegedly stole over USD 5 million in cryptocurrency by stealing the phone numbers has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
According to Motherboard, Joel Ortiz pleaded guilty to the crime. The 20-year-old is the first person to be convicted of a crime for SIM swapping.
Ortiz is one of the handful of SIM swappers who have been arrested for hijacking phone numbers of victims and using them to hack into emails, social media accounts, and online Bitcoin wallets.
SIM swapping is one of the latest, damaging hack attacks. Other people have also been arrested in relation to the same crime, including Joseph Harris, who allegedly stole over USD 14 million in cryptocurrency.
