A 48-year-old man from Daly City, CA, claims to have lost approximately $27,000 of Bitcoin in a SIM swapping crypto scam. According to KTVU FOX 2, the man, as-yet-unnamed, called Daly City police on January 14 to report that he received a text from a person purporting to represent telecommunications provider T-Mobile, who said his account was frozen after multiple attempts were made to change his password. He later received a call from a blocked number. The caller identified himself as an operator for Ledger, the crypto wallet hardware company that held the man's Bitcoin, informing him that his account had been compromised. The caller extracted his passcode and anonymous account identification numbers. He later received a call from a blocked number. The caller identified himself as an operator for Ledger, the crypto wallet hardware company that held the man's Bitcoin, informing him that his account had been compromised. The caller extracted his passcode and anonymous account identification numbers.

SIM swapping is not new. The technique involves scammers persuading mobile network companies to reassign the victim's phone number from the victim's SIM to one held by the scammer. Once reassigned, the victim can exploit two-step security verification techniques to reset the victim's passwords and gain access to their online accounts. The Daly City incident is not the first time SIM swapping scammers have stolen large amounts of crypto. In 2019, two men from Massachusetts conducted an extensive SIM swapping scheme to extort $550,000 from at least ten people, the majority of whom were from California and working in crypto.