On 1 February 2019, an official press release from the Manhattan District Attorney’s (DA) office announced that Dawson Bakies, aged 20, was indicted for stealing funds which included cryptocurrencies by exploiting the SIM swap method.
The defendant was charged with computer tampering, identity theft, grand larceny and other charges in an indictment at the New York State Supreme Court. According to the press release, the case would be the first prosecution in New York from SIM swapping.
Bakies allegedly stole the identities of around 50 individuals in the U.S., succeeding to gain full access to 3 victims’ online accounts which included Google accounts as well as accounts on crypto exchanges. He was reported to have prevented the owners from accessing their accounts by changing their passwords. He further stole cryptocurrencies worth $10,000 from the victims and even demanded Bitcoin (BTC) payment from one of them.
When the defendant’s home was searched by investigators, several devices were found related to his SIM swap theft. A laptop with an encrypted drive was also found containing a file which revealed the criminals’ potential targets, in which the 3 victims were labelled as “finished targets”.
It was also reported that targets were not chosen randomly. The individuals targeted for the crime were active publicly in the crypto world and were chosen as prey due to the high possibility that they would own at least one crypto wallet account.
Bakies pleaded not guilty for his charges and was bailed out for $100,000.
Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. stated that the case was a “notice” to the group of people interested in exploiting SIM swapping for their own benefits, warning them that the authorities know how to find them and will arrest them regardless of destinations.
The DA’s office further warned wireless service providers that they were providing “speedy customer service” through the quick porting of SIMs by sacrificing their customers’ safety, exposing them to the risk of falling victims to crimes like “identity theft and fraud”.
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