{"meta":{"database":"Global Social Engineering Impact Database","url":"https://global-social-engineering-impact-da.vercel.app","license":"CC BY 4.0 — attribute to Netarx Social Engineering Incident Database","generated":"2026-08-29T09:23:25.430Z","total":1,"returned":1,"limit":50,"offset":0,"next":null,"note":"Read loss_kind before summing loss_usd: only direct_loss and ransom_paid are comparable. Entries with entry_type \"benchmark\" are aggregate agency statistics and overlap with everything else by construction."},"results":[{"title":"AT&T SIM swap drains $24M in crypto from investor Michael Terpin","date":"2018-01","date_precision":"month","victim_org":"Michael Terpin (individual investor; Transform Group)","sector":"Cryptocurrency","country":"United States","primary_vector":"SIM Swap","secondary_vectors":["Insider Recruitment","Help Desk Impersonation"],"ai_involvement":"No AI reported","ai_notes":"No AI or synthetic media was reported in this case; the attack relied on carrier account takeover and insider assistance.","outcomes":["Cryptocurrency Theft","Identity Theft"],"loss_usd":24000000,"loss_note":"Approximately $24 million in cryptocurrency at the values cited in Terpin's litigation and contemporaneous reporting. A Los Angeles Superior Court default judgment against Nicholas Truglia totaled $75.8 million including treble RICO damages and prejudgment interest.","records_affected":null,"threat_actor":"Nicholas Truglia and associates; Ellis Pinsky, then 15, later named as a participant","summary":"Cryptocurrency investor Michael Terpin lost roughly $24 million in tokens after attackers took over the mobile phone number tied to his accounts. Terpin sued AT&T, alleging the carrier failed to protect his subscriber information under Section 222 of the Federal Communications Act. He separately won a $75.8 million civil judgment against Nicholas Truglia in what his counsel described as the first SIM-swap racketeering case.","how_it_worked":"Attackers targeted the mobile carrier rather than Terpin directly. According to reporting on the litigation, a then-15-year-old and an accomplice bribed an AT&T employee to move Terpin's SIM information onto a blank SIM card in a phone they controlled. Once the number was theirs, inbound SMS one-time codes and password-reset links flowed to the attackers, letting them reset credentials on Terpin's email and exchange accounts and sweep his holdings. Terpin had reportedly already asked AT&T to place additional protections on the account, which the complaint alleged were not effective against an employee acting from inside the carrier's own systems.","lessons":"Removing SMS from the authentication path for high-value crypto accounts, and enforcing dual-control plus supervisory approval on carrier-side SIM changes, would have broken this chain.","confidence":"Confirmed","sources":[{"title":"Cryptocurrency Investor Michael Terpin Wins $75.8 Million Judgment in First-Ever SIM Swap Racketeering Case","url":"https://www.greenbergglusker.com/news/cryptocurrency-investor-michael-terpin-wins-75-8-million-judgment-in-first-ever-sim-swap-racketeering-case","publisher":"Greenberg Glusker"},{"title":"Court revives 2020 AT&T case over $24M crypto theft via SIM swap","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/att-court-sim-swap-crypto-theft","publisher":"Cointelegraph"}],"entry_type":"incident","slug":"2018-at-t-sim-swap-drains-24m-in-crypto-from-investor-michael-terpin","year":2018,"loss_kind":"direct_loss","url":"https://global-social-engineering-impact-da.vercel.app/incidents/2018-at-t-sim-swap-drains-24m-in-crypto-from-investor-michael-terpin"}]}