A Missouri man has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for his role in a SIM swapping scheme that resulted in the theft of millions of dollars.
The man, Garrett Endicott, 22, of Warrensburg, Johnson County, who pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme, was also ordered to pay $121,000 in restitution, the United States Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
Endicott is the sixth member of the international hacking group “The Community” to have been sentenced in connection with the multi-million-dollar conspiracy that relied on SIM swapping to steal funds from unsuspecting victims.
As part of a SIM swapping attack, cybercriminals trick customer support employees at mobile network carriers to transfer a victim’s phone number to a SIM in the possession of the attackers. This allows the miscreants to intercept phone calls and SMS messages, including those that contain access codes and two-factor authentication codes.
Employing SIM swapping, members of The Community changed passwords for the victims’ online accounts, including email, cloud storage, and accounts at cryptocurrency exchanges, and stole cryptocurrency from victims in California, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, New York, Utah, and Texas.
The scheme resulted in the theft of cryptocurrency worth tens of millions of dollars. Targeted individuals lost cryptocurrency amounts ranging between under $2,000 and more than $5 million.
Other defendants sentenced for roles in the scheme include Ricky Handschumacher, 28, of Pasco County, Florida (sentenced to 48 months in prison and ordered to pay $7.6 million in restitution); Colton Jurisic, 22, of Dubuque, Iowa (42 months in prison and $9.5 million in restitution); Reyad Gafar Abbas, 22, of Charleston, South Carolina (24 months in prison and $310,000 in restitution); Conor Freeman, 22, of Dublin, Ireland (3 years in prison); and Ryan Stevenson, 29, of West Haven, Connecticut (sentenced to probation).
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