How does your phone number secretly unlock a vault to all your savings? For criminals with the right information and a lot of hubris, it’s surprisingly simple. In this episode, we’re telling the story of SIM-swapping: the theft of mobile phone numbers which hold the key to all of our data, and for a lot of us, all of our money.
For so many people, a mobile phone is one of the most important belongings we have. It’s almost like a second brain: a phone is how we connect to work, family and friends, it’s an assistant, a map, a creative tool, and it’s the key to a flood of personal information. If your phone goes missing, it’s annoying, but it’s replaceable. Except, what if your phone doesn’t go missing, but your phone number does? That’s when everything you do online - including banking and investments - can become vulnerable to hackers looking for big payouts.
This is the tale of the first-ever convicted SIM-swapper, a young college student named Joel Ortiz who stole over 7 million dollars worth of cryptocurrency, and invaded the lives of more than 40 victims, all through their phone numbers. It’s also the story of Joel’s co-conspirators, a group of young hackers that called themselves The Community, and their victims who suffered devastating, life-changing losses. At a time when mobile phones are the skeleton key to our lives, sim swapping is a crime that everyone needs to learn more about.