According to the New York Times, on November 20, Manhattan police arrested 21-year-old Nicholas Truglia, who hacked other people's mobile phones in order to appropriate the owners' cryptocurrency.
According to officials, the young man carried out attacks on Silicon Valley businessmen and other wealthy people while sitting in his Manhattan apartment. Santa Clara Superior Court Prosecutor Erin West called the incident "a new way to commit old crimes."
Truglia stole $1 million from San Francisco resident Robert Ross through a SIM card swap scheme, according to court records. Ross learned of the theft on the morning of October 26, 2018, when his phone suddenly went off and then $500,000 disappeared from each of his Coinbase and Gemini accounts. It is believed that Truglia immediately converted the stolen dollars into cryptocurrency and transferred them to his wallet.
The criminal's victims also include Saswata Basu, CEO of the funds storage service 0Chain; hedge fund founder Majels Danielsen, vice president of Hall Capital Partners, and Gabriel Katznelson, co-founder of startup SMBX.
Court reports indicate that while the scammer was able to hack into phones and steal fiat, he was unable to steal bitcoin from users' accounts.
In fact, committing such a crime was not too difficult. The scammer asked customer service to connect the victim's number to his own number, thus gaining full access to the owner's account information.
The criminal is currently in the Manhattan Detention Facility, from where he will be sent to Santa Clara, California. He is accused of a total of 21 criminal offenses.
According to btcmanager.com
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