Virtual Event: Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit - Watch Sessions
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cybercrime

SIM Swappers Sentenced to Prison for Hacking Accounts, Stealing Cryptocurrency

Two Massachusetts individuals have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a scheme to take over high-profile social media accounts and steal cryptocurrency.

Two Massachusetts individuals have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a scheme to take over high-profile social media accounts and steal cryptocurrency.

The two, Eric Meiggs, 24, of Brockton, and Declan Harrington, 22, of Beverly, employed SIM swapping, computer hacking, and other techniques as part of their nefarious activities, the US Department of Justice says.

According to documents presented in court, the two targeted executives of cryptocurrency companies and individuals who had large amounts of cryptocurrency or who owned high-value OG (Original Gangster) social media accounts.

Meiggs and Harrington conspired to take over OG accounts and steal their victim’s cryptocurrency and other assets of value.

One of the techniques they employed was SIM swapping, which consists of the attacker convincing the victim’s mobile phone carrier to transfer the victim’s number to a SIM card controlled by the attacker.

This allows the cybercriminals to pose as the victim with social media account providers and initialize password reset procedures that involve sending reset links or authorization codes to the victim’s phone number, which is now under the attacker’s control.

Next, the cybercriminals reset the account’s login credentials and can then access the account.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

The two defendants targeted at least 10 victims in the US and allegedly stole roughly $330,000 in cryptocurrency from them. Meiggs allegedly took over two social media OG accounts.

Meiggs and Harrington were sentenced to two years and one day in prison and two years and seven days in prison, respectively. They pleaded guilty last year.

Related: Canadian NetWalker Ransomware Affiliate Gets 20-Year Prison Sentence in US

Related: Israeli Defence Minister’s Cleaner Sentenced for Spying Attempt

Related: Seventh Member of International Cyber Fraud Ring Sentenced to Prison

Related: Estonian Ransomware Operator Sentenced to Prison in US

Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group informed some customers last week that their online accounts had been breached by hackers.

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Cybercrime

Satellite TV giant Dish Network confirmed that a recent outage was the result of a cyberattack and admitted that data was stolen.

Cybercrime

As it evolves, web3 will contain and increase all the security issues of web2 – and perhaps add a few more.

Cybercrime

Zendesk is informing customers about a data breach that started with an SMS phishing campaign targeting the company’s employees.

Artificial Intelligence

The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 has demonstrated the potential of AI for both good and bad.

Artificial Intelligence

The degree of danger that may be introduced when adversaries start to use AI as an effective weapon of attack rather than a tool...