In a desperate attempt to try and recover some of his losses, a California resident by the name of Seth Shapiro has filed a lawsuit against AT&T, the American giant telecommunications company. According to filing records, Shapiro claims AT&T employees helped perpetuate a SIM-swap which eventually resulted in the theft of over $1.8 million.
Seth Shapiro is a two-time Emmy Award-winning media and technology expert, an author and an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. The lawsuit states that during the month of May, AT&T employees transferred access to his phone to an outside hacker claiming:
AT&T employees obtained unauthorized access to Mr. Shapiro’s AT&T wireless account, viewed his confidential and proprietary personal information, and transferred control… to a phone controlled by third-party hackers in exchange for money… The hackers then utilized their control over Mr. Shapiro’s AT&T wireless number… to access his personal and digital finance accounts and steal more than $1.8 million.
As detailed in the filing, Shapiro’s legal team claims that only through these type of actions a person could gain access to the information on his mobile phone, which eventually enabled hackers to gain control over sensitive data such as access codes to several accounts, including cryptocurrency exchanges:
While third parties had control over Mr. Shapiro’s AT&T wireless number, they used that control to access and reset the passwords for Mr. Shapiro’s accounts on cryptocurrency exchange platforms including KuCoin, Bittrex, Wax, Coinbase, Huobi, Crytopia, LiveCoin, HitBTC, Coss.io, Liqui, and Bitfinex.
Furthermore, Shapiro claims to have chat logs where AT&T employees and hackers would discuss how the stolen money should be divided and how much each individual should get.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time Shapiro seems to have been a victim of said crimes. According to the filing, Shapiro has fell victim to multiple SIM-swapping crimes with his private information and online accounts being leaked in the past. Due to the reasons exposed, Shapiro’s legal team claims that AT&T is in violation of the Federal Communications Act for failing to protect the confidential information of its clients. Additionally, Shapiro also claims that the telecommunications giant is in violation of several California state Laws such as the Unfair Competition Law, the Constitutional Right to Privacy and the Consumer Legal Remedy Act. At last, Shapiro also accused AT&T of gross negligence.
