The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has sentenced a sixth member of the international hacking group known as ‘The Community’ in association with a multimillion-dollar SIM swapping conspiracy. 

Garrett Endicott, 22 years old from Warrensburg, Missouri, is the last of the six accused that has been sent to prison in connection with a multi-million-dollar SIM-swapping conspiracy that targeted victims across the country, including in California, Michigan, Missouri, Utah, New York, Texas, and Illinois. He has been sentenced to 10 months and pronounced to pay $121,549.37 amount in reparation. 

Before delving into more details, first, we must understand what exactly went down? Let’s go over what SIM swapping is and how it usually plays out. 

SIM swapping or SIM hijacking, is a type of identity theft fraud wherein the perpetrator persuades phone carriers into porting their victims' cell services to SIM cards under their control. 

This usually happens by stealing the data of victims from numerous sources including data breach leaks, social media profiles, phishing, and other types of social engineering. Once this is done, the group of hackers gets access to the victim’s accounts that are linked to their phone number including email account, cloud storage, and cryptocurrency exchange accounts, etc. 

The main reason why cybercriminals do this is to intercept two-factor authentication (2FA) texts that give access to secure services such as banks and crypto-wallets. 

"Members of The Community engaged in Sim Hijacking to steal cryptocurrency from victims across the country, including California, Missouri, Michigan, Utah, Texas, New York, and Illinois, resulting in the theft of cryptocurrency valued, at the time of the theft, ranging anywhere between $2,000 to more than $5 million, from different affected parties,” the justice department said. 

"The actions of these defendants resulted in the loss of millions of dollars to the victims, some of whom lost their entire retirement savings. This case should serve as a reminder to all of us to protect our personal and financial information from those who seek to steal it said Acting U.S. Attorney Saima Mohsin for the Eastern District of Michigan”.