Mobile is one of the biggest mobile carriers in the US. This status is not going to protect it from a lawsuit that is being filed against it. One of its customers Carlos Tapang has decided to file a lawsuit as hackers stole his cryptocurrency from his mobile wallet. According to him, the company failed to impose adequate security measures. Thousands of worth cryptocurrencies are stolen, together with some BitConnect funds.
A Scam Targeting Phone Numbers To Steal Money
Someone who relies on exchanges or e-wallets to store up cryptocurrency funds is always under threat of losing their funds. According to the lawsuit against T-Mobile, the mobile provider did not perform adequate security measures to keep the hackers out. As this happened the client lost access to his account overall because the culprit had taken over his T-Mobile account, which is completely excruciating at this point in time.
It seems at least one hacker or potentially a group of hackers provided T-Mobile with enough information to deceit a call center operator into porting Tapang’s number to AT&T. With this mobile number in their control, the culprits gained access to one of Tapang’s cryptocurrency account and changed the password. All assets in this account were liquidated in the open marketplace. According to resources, the cyber criminal got away with 1,000 OmiseGo (OMG) tokens and 19.6 BitConnect coins. A total of 2.875 Bitcoin was then transferred out of Tapang’s account.
Even though this incident took place on 7th November 2017, Tapang recently decided to take T-Mobile to the court. As cryptocurrency transactions are non-refundable, the financial failure is squarely on him. The exchange affected by this “hack” is not to blame, as the attacker had access to Tapang’s mobile number to authenticate and approve all transactions. Claiming T-Mobile is the “bad seed” might extend too far, even though the company could make it harder for those who switch mobile numbers to a different carrier over the phone.
The complaint claims that the United States Telco failed to put into practice a security measure outlined in its own policies. More specifically, clients can attach a confidential PIN to their account as an additional layer of security. Even though Tapang has such a confidential PIN, the transfer of his mobile number was approved without this code. It is apparent a call center operator is responsible for this incident, even though the parent company was unsuccessful to provide proper guidance to its staff.
Mobile and internet security will come under further scrutiny as incidents such as this increase with the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies. Companies providing these services to their customers will likely need to implement tougher security measures to protect themselves from similar lawsuits and protect their clients from cybercriminals. This debacle further highlights the need for people to store up cryptocurrencies in an offline mode. Leaving money on an exchange or e-wallet is asking for a problem, in spite of how little you may own.
Ricky Makan is a venture capitalist and Crypto Enthusiast best known for pioneering the market for Digital Marketing. He is a Co-founder of Unkrypted, a platform which provides the latest news and information that helps understand everything about the ever-evolving world of digital currencies.