Nicholas Truglia, 25, of Ocoee, FL, participated in a scheme to conduct a cyber intrusion of online accounts of the victim in order to steal cryptocurrency. During the course of the scheme, participants in the scheme gained unauthorized access to online accounts of the victim through SIM swapping, according to court records.
During a SIM swap attack, threat actors gain control of a victim’s mobile phone number by linking that number to a subscriber identity module (“SIM”) card controlled by the threat actors, resulting in the victim’s calls and messages being routed to a device controlled by the threat actors.
The attackers successfully gained unauthorized access to online accounts of the victim via a SIM swap of the victim’s mobile phone number. The attackers then used those online accounts to gain access to a cryptocurrency wallet of the victim containing over $20 million worth of the victim’s cryptocurrency.
One of the attackers contacted Truglia and added him to an online call with other attackers, during which Truglia learned of the SIM Swap and agreed to receive cryptocurrency fraudulently diverted from the victim’s cryptocurrency wallet into an online account held by Truglia.
Over the next few hours, Truglia made the Truglia Account available to other attackers to receive the victim’s stolen cryptocurrency, where it was converted into Bitcoin.
Attackers transferred much of this Bitcoin to other accounts controlled by them and left a portion of the criminal proceeds for Truglia. In total, during the SIM Swap, attackers stole over $20 million worth of the victim’s cryptocurrency, with the defendant keeping at least approximately $673,000 worth of the stolen funds.
“Nicholas Truglia and his associates stole a staggering amount of cryptocurrency from the victim through a complex SIM swap scheme.,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “Nevertheless, today’s sentencing goes to show that no matter how sophisticated the crime is, this office will continue to successfully prosecute those who choose to defraud others.”