48 year old man from the city of Daly, CA has claimed that he lost up to $27,000 in Bitcoin in a SIM swapping crypto scam.

According to KTVU FOX 2 the man, (whose name is yet to be confirmed) called the police in Daly City on the 14th of January to report that there was a text he received from an individual who claimed to be representing the telecommunications giant T-Mobile, who said his account was suspended after multiple attempts were made to change his password.

Later on he got a call from a blocked number. The caller identified himself as someone who operates for Ledger, the crypto wallet hardware company which the man has an account with, informing him that his account has been hacked. The caller extracted his passcode and anonymous account identification number.

This was the manner the hacker used in getting the information needed to get into the man's crypto wallet. When the man checked his Ledger account, the man later saw that all of his funds up to $27,000 in Bitcoin gone.

What is SIM swapping?

The technique of SIM swapping is not new, it is such that scammers persuades mobile network operators to reassign the victim's phone number from the victim's SIM to the one being used by the scammer.
Once it has been reassigned, the hacker can later on exploit the two-step security verification techniques to reset the victim's passwords and gain access to their online accounts.

How SIM swapping scammers target crypto users

This incident that occurred in Daly City is not the first time SIM swapping scammers have stolen large sums in crypto. Back in 2019, two men in Massachusetts ran an extensive SIM swapping program to extort large sums to the tune of $550,000 from at least 10 people, with most of the victims from California and working in crypto.

Another high-profile SIM swapping scam was uncovered in 2020 after a leak compromised the personal information of the users of Canadian crypto exchange Coinsquare, and let their information stay with the hackers, who told vice they planned to use the stolen data for a large-scale SIM swapping scam.
However the largest SIM swapping scam recorded happened in 2018 when a man by name Ellis Pinsky, who at the time was 15yrs of age, allegedly defrauded U.S crypto investor Micheal Terpin of $28.3 million in crypto.

How to protect yourself from SIM swapping

There's not much you can do, if you are a target of SIM swapping scammers. But using techniques can improve the security of your online profile.
Mobile networks provide a pin code to your wireless account, giving you more security.
To add to it, try to limit the amount of data and the amount of times the data is given out in your online activities as scammers rely heavily on open-source data to be able to convince network providers they are the rightful owners. Also be on the lookout for unsolicited email or text asking for personal information—they could be scammers "phishing" for online information. Added to it consider third-party authentication apps like Google authenticator.