Feds Crack Down on SIM Swap Hackers Behind $5M Crypto Theft and Laundering Plot
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this week that it has filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking more than $5 million in bitcoin that authorities say stems from SIM swapping attacks targeting multiple victims. Prosecutors in Washington D.C. allege that cybercriminals exploited weaknesses in mobile authentication systems to steal cryptocurrency and then attempted to launder it through a casino platform. Noting that the thefts took place between Oct. 29, 2022, and March 21, 2023, officials explained:
These funds are traceable to the theft and unauthorized transfer of cryptocurrency from cryptocurrency wallets owned by five victims.
The DOJ stated that attackers hijacked victims’ phone numbers to circumvent security protections and gain entry to their digital wallets. According to the complaint: “The perpetrators of these thefts utilized a SIM swapping technique that allowed the perpetrators to authenticate their unauthorized access to the victims’ cryptocurrency accounts and transfer the victim funds to perpetrator-controlled accounts.” Once the bitcoin was removed, the group shifted the assets across numerous wallets, eventually channeling them into an account at Stake.com, an online casino.
Investigators said the stolen funds were repeatedly moved in and out of wallets in what appeared to be circular transactions designed to obscure their true origin.
The case is being managed by trial attorneys in the DOJ’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section along with federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia, with assistance from the FBI’s Miami Field Office. Officials pointed to dozens of circular transfers between March 20 and March 22, 2023, as evidence of laundering. Prosecutors noted that since 2020, the department has secured more than 180 cybercrime convictions and facilitated the return of more than $350 million to victims. While the DOJ underscored the risks associated with SIM swapping, advocates for cryptocurrency stress that the underlying technology is widely used in legitimate finance and remains a powerful tool for innovation and economic access.
