Canadian police arrested a teenager for stealing C € 46 million (approximately € 36,5 million) in cryptocurrency, in what is described as a SIM swapping attack.
To facilitate the theft, described as the largest crypto theft by a single individual, the teenager managed to hijack the victim's phone number, which he then used to log into the victim's crypto wallet by intercepting two-factor authentication requests. .
At the time of the arrest, police were only able to seize approximately € 7 million (€ 5,5 million) in cryptocurrency stolen from the teenager, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
According to a statement, the arrest is the result of a joint investigation that began in March 2020 between the Hamilton Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service Task Force on Electronic Crimes.
Amateur mistake
It is not immediately clear when the theft took place and if the rest of the stolen crypto was not recovered as it has all been spent.
However, the Hamilton police statement mentioned that the thief made the rather amateurish mistake of using the stolen crypto to buy "an online username that was considered rare in the gaming community."
Although they did not mention how much the thief spent to buy the username, it would have been large enough to attract the attention of the authorities. In fact, it is by tracing the transaction associated with the purchase of this rare pseudonym that led the teenager to authorities.
The teenager was presented in court, but the press release does not mention the amount of the sentence imposed.
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