atnt sues crypto

Crypto user sues AT&T after sim swapping incident

Texas resident Jamarquis Etheridge has sued AT&T following an attack on his crypto investments. An estimated loss of 159.8 Ethereum tokens or US$478,516.31 was stolen from Etheridge’s account through a series of sim swapping.

According to the official complaint filed by Etheridge and written by his attorney Richard E. Brown, AT&T failed to prevent the security breach. This allowed the hackers to access all of his transactions via mobile, including all of his cryptocurrency investments. 

‘Etheridge’s exchange account was subjected to unauthorized transfers; he was deprived of his use of his cell phone number and required to expend time, energy and expense to address and resolve this financial disruption and mitigate the consequences; and he also suffered consequent emotional distress’, the official complaint stated. 

To compensate for his losses, Etheridge has asked for redress in terms of ‘compensatory and equitable relief’. Other parts of the official complaint stated his need for AT&T to address statutory damages, attorney fees and complete reimbursement of all losses after the attack was made.  

Etheridge says that he has been a loyal user of AT&T since 2009. Until now, he has not experienced any problems with the mobile carrier. AT&T has yet to make an announcement or reach out to Etheridge to compensate for the problems. 

Etheridge is just one of the many victims of sim-swapping, where hackers take advantage of weak links in mobile carriers and steal sensitive information. The process makes it easy for hackers to compromise applications like crypto apps, online banking, personal accounts and many more. 

Sim swapping or sim hijacking is a common issue for victims of crypto hacking. It’s the process of accessing a person’s mobile phone through the carrier. When the hackers have been given access, they can change the passwords of a person’s account and verify transactions with their mobile number. 

This is not the first time that AT&T has been involved in a problem like this. The company faced a similar but bigger case with Michael Terpin who encountered an estimated loss of more than $24 million over the course of three years. 

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