It was 2018 when Michael Terpin (pictured) began a lawsuit against AT&T for a SIM swap that cost him USD24mn in stolen cryptocurrency. He wanted his USD24mn back, plus USD200mn in exemplary damages. It seemed like the lawsuit was defeated last year when a judge ruled that the wording of the standard contract with AT&T had limited the telco’s liability for losses suffered by customers. Terpin persisted, and took to social media last week to hail an unexpected turnaround in fortune.
As many of you have already seen, I prevailed in my appeal to the US Ninth Circuit in a unanimous decision by the three-judge panel, remanding my lawsuit against AT&T for its violation of the Federal Communications Act consent decree to protect consumer proprietary network information. This is an important victory in a landmark case that has been going on for more than six years…
There is still a long way to go in this case, but telcos cannot afford complacency. It may seem that the law is on their side, but the law is written by politicians, and then interpreted by judges. As long as there is SIM swap fraud, there will be the temptation to hold telcos liable, irrespective of telcos write into their terms and conditions.
