Cryptocurrency News Today – Michael Terpin, an angel investor, has filed a lawsuit against a hacker for stealing millions in cryptocurrencies. According to the suit, the hacker started leading a crew of computer geniuses when he was 15. The accused is named Ellis Pinksy and he recently bragged about the successful completion of a multi-million dollar heist. Terpin is suing for three times the damages allowed in the United States which is $71 million. Part of the report from Bloomberg stated; “on the surface… an ‘all American boy’ [who] lives a suburban life with a doting mother who is a prominent doctor.”
According to the lawsuit, the hacker allegedly used SIM technology to rip people off. They convinced the service providers that they are the owners of stolen cards so they can port to another device and subsequently rob the owner. They take personal information from the hijacked sun cards. They can access anything including the Bitcoin wallet of the user. Using this method, Pinsky and his crew allegedly edged into his device and intercepted his messages. This allowed them to steal millions in cryptocurrencies from his account.
Since they used the SIM swap method, the hackers were able to bypass his two-factor authentication allowing them to get away with over $100 million in cryptocurrencies. When Terpin confronted Pinsky with the allegation, he said he has already converted most of the cryptocurrencies to cash. He returned only a little of what was stolen but could not provide the rest. The case against Pinksy was made solid after Pinksy returned some of the cryptocurrency because it was considered as an admission of guilt.
Two years ago, Terpin slammed AT&T with a $224 million lawsuit for not protecting him from Pinsky’s SIM swap scheme. He said that the company’s negligence contributed to his loss. However, Terpin is still out for blood and isn’t going to rest until Pinksy, who is now above the legal age to be treated as an adult, is made to pay for what he and his crew did.
In other news, the weekend was extremely bloody for cryptocurrencies as prices fell significantly against the USD. Bitcoin was leading the bear market as it fell significantly against the USD. At the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin BTC was struggling to stay above the $8,200 support. Even if the token has recovered briefly, the damage it did in the cryptocurrency community over the weekend was terrible. The market may be suffering because of the possible upcoming Bitcoin halving event.