In the fight against crypto fraud, police in the United States consider “Sim swapping” top of their list of priorities. This is according to security news publication KrebsonSecurity. Santa Barbara police sergeant and supervisor of the REACT task force, Samy Tarazi told the publication, that Sim swapping incidences have been on the up. The react taskforce is dedicated to combating cybercrime with an interest of nabbing crypto scammers as well. According to Sammy Tarazi, the numbers have risen to historic heights necessitating the need for quick action. He also expressed worry over the amounts of money these criminals are able to get away with.
“Sim swapping” refers to the criminal act of remotely hijacking a Sim card from a mobile device. This enables the criminals to get access to an unsuspecting person’s mobile device as well as an operator’s database. Criminals are then able to find their way inside poorly secured and unprotected data. The criminals mainly target crypto wallets login details and passwords, if they are successful; a lot of money disappears within seconds. Tarazi stated, “If someone gets robbed of $100,000 that’s a huge case, but we’re now dealing with someone who buys a 99 cent SIM card off eBay, plugs it into a cheap burner phone, makes a call and steals millions of dollars. That’s pretty remarkable.”
The REACT team based in Santa Barbara has been hot on the trail of these criminals for a while after case upon case of robbed crypto wallets. Tarazi said that REACT, which is short for Regional enforcement allied computer team, is mainly focused on dealing with this menace as at now. He said; “It’s probably REACT’s highest priority at the moment, given that SIM swapping is actively happening to someone probably even as we speak right now,” he added that the Sim swapping cases were also top of the team’s priority because there were a lot of people that had fallen prey in their jurisdiction.
Tarazi and team are obviously quite dedicated to taming this menace. If they are to go full throttle though, they must get ready for a tough battle since crypto fraudsters change their stripes often. Just as technology evolves every other time, does the trickery and creativity of these crooked characters evolve as well. The REACT team is however confident that they will counter these criminals and bring whoever that is responsible to book.
