Alabama resident has been charged in a SIM-swap hack, targeting victims to steal over $150,000 worth of cryptocurrency. According to local news, authorities alleged that the resident is a 22-year-old man named Joseph Chase Oaks who now faces a string of charges. Prosecutors have accused Oaks of identity theft, computer trespass, and tampering, as well as charges related to defrauding hundreds of victims. Reports stated that a judge overseeing the case released the accused without bail.
Primarily, Chase Oaks has been accused of running a scam through which, he was able to illegally take control of 50 online accounts, 15 of which belonged to Manhattan-based residents, to steal crypto between August 2018 and October 2019. The crypto involved was not disclosed at press time.
Oaks allegedly worked alongside “scam artists” in US and Canada, which enabled him to access more than 60 Apple and Android phones as well as hundreds of SIM cards.
Cy Vance, Manhattan District Attorney said that Oaks fraudulently transferred more than 300 phone numbers to his phones. The Attorney claimed that this incident marks the growth of SIM-swapping hacks that are now “more common and prolific.”
Across regions, the latest Europol Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment identified ‘sim swapping’ as “a key trend on the rise”.
Recently, Europol arrested a criminal gang that employed SIM-swapping techniques to steal more than $100 million in cryptocurrencies. Typical to SIM-swapping scams, the criminals illegally accessed the phones of famous people.
