A Portland man has been sentenced to prison for his role in a scheme that involved the theft of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency through SIM swapping.
According to the DoJ, 22-year-old Daniel James Junk, has received a sentence of six years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. In addition, he will have to pay over $3 million in restitution to victims.
He was accused of being part of a cybercrime community whose members specialized in SIM swapping. He was a member of this community between at least December 2019 and March 2022.
By tricking mobile operators into transferring victims’ phone numbers to their own SIM cards, the cybercriminals were able to gain access to email, cryptocurrency and other types of online accounts, even ones protected by two-factor authentication.
In many cases, they targeted cryptocurrency accounts, which enabled them to obtain large amounts of money.
“Throughout his involvement in such schemes, Junk performed some aspects of all the required roles including finding victims to target through breached databases or other exploits, porting victim phone numbers to devices controlled by members of the fraud conspiracy, and physically possessing the phone used for the ‘swap’,” the DoJ said.
When Junk was arrested in March 2022, the FBI seized $3 million worth of bitcoin and he later handed over another $1 million worth of bitcoin.
He pleaded guilty in April 2023, but investigators discovered in January 2024, just before his sentencing, that he had continued his cybercrime activities.
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