Famous crypto phenomenon Coin Engineer, who has 247 thousand followers on the X (formerly Twitter) platform, said that his Türk Telekom SIM card was stolen and “all his money in his life was withdrawn.”
While the crypto phenomenon said that his wallets in the exchanges were emptied this evening and he could not access his e-mail accounts, he cried out for help: “I am in a very difficult situation, help PLEASE.”
türk telekom Sim kartım çalındı tüm borsalardaki paralarım çekiliyor telefonuma arama bile gelmiyor tüm maillerim çalındı şifre değiştirildi borsalardan hayattaki tüm paramı çektiler çok zor durumdayım yardım LÜTFEN @TurkTelekom pic.twitter.com/1InOOs9l4w
— Coin Muhendisi🇹🇷 (@coinmuhendisim) November 16, 2023
The first response to Coin Engineer’s call for help came from Ahmet Onur Yeygün, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitci.
Bitci olarak hesabı güvenli şekilde kilitledik. Geçmiş olsun.
— Ahmet Onur Yeygün (@onuryeygun) November 16, 2023
Another cryptocurrency exchange that stated that they blocked the wallets of the Coin Engineer who was attacked was Bitget Turkey.
Bitget Türkiye değerli dostlarımızın hesaplarına yaklaşık 25dk önce bloke koymuştur.
Umarız her şey telafi edilir. Geçmiş olsun🙏— 🇹🇷 Bitget Türkiye (@bitgetturkey) November 16, 2023
It is unknown how much crypto assets the phenomenon keeps in their wallets.
The first of the screenshots shared by Coin Engineer includes the words “Your SIM card change has been completed.” Fenomen states that he did not even receive an SMS on his phone. Although there is not enough information about the attack, this is not a situation that the crypto industry is unfamiliar with. As a matter of fact, Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, was subjected to a similar attack last September and $691 thousand worth of crypto assets were stolen from his wallet.
What is a SIM swapping attack?
A fraud method by transferring the phone number to another SIM card. With this method, also known as SIM Jacking, attackers move their victims’ phone numbers to their own SIM cards. By “penetrating” the victim’s SIM card, the attacker thus gains control of the phone number and the accounts connected to it.
How to perform a SIM swap attack?
The attackers, who pose as the owner of the line, call the mobile operators and tell them that they have lost their phone and request that the phone number they are currently using be transferred to a “new” SIM card. All accounts linked to the victim’s phone number are also emptied this way.
