It is hardly news that SIM swappers target investors in cryptocurrencies. One such investor is suing AT&T for USD224mn after SIM swappers stole USD24mn from his cryptocurrency accounts. But there is a twist in the story of Nicholas Truglia (pictured), a New Yorker who describes himself as a futurist but appears to be more like a cross between a con artist and a fantasist. Truglia has been accused of committing a SIM swap fraud that allowed him to steal USD1mn from Robert Ross of San Francisco. The New York Post reported that:
Ross watched helplessly on Oct. 26 as his phone went dark and $500,000 in a Coinbase account and another $500,000 in a Gemini account vanished in seconds. It was his daughters’ college fund — his entire life savings, West said.
Truglia was caught by the Santa Clara REACT task force, a specialized law enforcement team that was featured in an article about SIM swaps by Brian Krebs. Truglia only stole cryptocurrency from Ross’ cryptocurrency accounts but he is alleged to be a repeated SIM swapper, having also taken over the phone accounts of…
…Saswata Basu, CEO of the block-chain storage service 0Chain; hedge-funder Myles Danielsen, vice president of Hall Capital Partners, and Gabrielle Katsnelson, the co-founder of the startup SMBX.
The irony in this story is that Truglia already made the news in September, when he claimed to be the victim of an attempted cryptocurrency theft. His story was that four friends tortured him and demanded passwords to his Bitcoin accounts, which were said to be worth USD1.2mn. In relation to that case, Truglia said:
It’s pretty common for people to target people who have a lot of cryptocurrency
You can take his word for it!
