Attacker Sentenced in Multimillion-Dollar SIM Hijacking Scheme

Officials have sentenced a sixth member of international hacking group The Community in association with a multimillion-dollar SIM hijacking conspiracy, the Deptartment of Justice reports.

Garrett Endicott, 22, was the final defendant to be sentenced in the case. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $121,549.37.

The operation allowed members of the group to gain control of victims' mobile phone numbers, which led to their phone calls and text messages being routed to devices that The Community controlled. Attackers would bribe employees of mobile phone operators or call a provider's customer service and pose as the victim to request the victim's phone number be swapped to a SIM card the attackers controlled.

With control of a victim's number, The Community could then gain control of online accounts, such as their email, cloud storage, and ultimately, their cryptocurrency exchange accounts. The scheme resulted in the theft of tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. Individuals lost cryptocurrency valued, at the time of theft, from under $2,000 to over $5 million.

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