A court in Canada let Freedom Mobile off the hook after a SIM swap allowed by the carrier led to the theft of $60K in crypto.
We’ve been hearing more and more about SIM swaps and how they can wipe out your financial accounts in a heartbeat. Sepehr Tahmasebpour was a customer of Canadian wireless firm Freedom Mobile and he was about to learn that scams like SIM swaps can cross the border very easily. Tahmasebpour claims that Freedom Mobile turned over a new SIM card to someone who was impersonating his father who is actually the person responsible for paying the invoice each month.Tahmasebpour received texts alerting him that his email address and PIN had been changed
The wireless firm turned over the SIM card to a participant in the scam back in January 2021 and this criminal used the card to get into Tahmasebpour’s email app, lock him out of his accounts, and steal $60,000 worth of bitcoins from his crypto wallet. In a January 2023 court filing, Tahmasebpour wrote, « This was caused by the grossly negligent actions and inactions of Freedom, » which would seem to make sense since it issued the SIM card.
The victim received texts about his email address and PIN before his phone lost service
There are two ways that fake SIM cards get handed out. One, the thief has paid off someone working for the wireless firm to hand over new SIM cards to a person involved in the scam. This is why T-Mobile and every wireless consumer should have been alarmed when T-Mobile employees received unsolicited text messages offering them $300 for each SIM swap they help slide through the carrier’s system.
