Silver Miller, a US-based cryptocurrency investor law firm, has filed a lawsuit against giant American telecommunications companies, AT&T and T-Mobile.
The lawsuit’s court documents allege that both AT&T and T-Mobile’s customers have been “victimized in an emerging identity theft crisis known as ‘SIM swapping.’”
Silver Miller’s team of attorneys also claim that AT&T Inc, a Texas-based conglomerate holding company with over $440 billion in assets, and T-Mobile, a subsidiary of German telecommunications company, Deutsche Telekom AG, have negligently left:
Holes in their security protocols and [have] failed to properly train and monitor their employees, [so the] cellphone providers have assisted thieves in remotely taking over the SIM cards in people's smartphones, accessing financial records and account information of the victims, and emptying the victim's accounts of cryptocurrency and other valuable assets.
“Permitting SIM Swaps To Take Place”
Notably, Silver Miller revealed that one of its clients, an AT&T customer, lost $621,000 in cryptocurrency due to a SIM swap fraud – even though the telecommunications firm claimed that it had “increased” security on his account after there was an attempt to hack it.
The American law firm further noted in its press release that its T-Mobile clients had been robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars in digital currency as the phone carrier service had “permitted SIM swaps to take place” in several incidents.
Moreover, Silver Miller shared a link which details two separate cases where one T-Mobile customer allegedly lost $400,000, while another lost $250,000 due to malicious SIM swapping techniques.
$24 Million “SIM Swap Fraud”
Going on to explain what SIM swapping actually is, the law firm noted: “SIM swapping” or “SIM hijacking” is a growing crime in the telecommunications world that, in a few moments’ time, can allow a thief to steal millions of dollars of an unsuspecting victim’s assets with little more than a persuasive plea for assistance, a willing telecommunications carrier representative, and an electronic impersonation of the victim.”
As CryptoGlobe reported in mid-August, a crypto investor named Michael Turpin had sued AT&T as he claimed that the telecom firm failed to protect his privacy – which allowed hackers to steal $24 million in cryptocurrency from his wallet.
In court documents, Turpin alleged AT&T’s employees had “actively cooperated with hackers” and had intentionally given them access to private customer information – which was used to hack into the victims’ cellphone and crypto wallet, leading to the theft of millions of dollars in digital assets.
