Exchange Account Drained TMobile Sim Swap Carlos Tapang

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TMobile

Carlos Tapang was a happy customer of an unknown exchange and the TMobile cell phone carrier, and a happy participant in the BitConnect ponzi scheme and OmiseGo network when his number was ported over to a different carrier. He filed a lawsuit against TMobile a few months later. It's unclear if any of his funds will be recovered.

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

About Unknown

"Hackers reportedly drained Tapang’s accounts of the OmiseGo and Bitconnect tokens that he owned, and likely won’t be returning them anytime soon."

"T-Mobile never added a pin to Tapang’s account as requested, and hackers called the service repeatedly in order to reach a representative willing to make the transfer. After the porting, Tapang was unable to access his phone number and had to do whatever he could to secure his holdings and rescue his accounts."

"Just last Sunday, a Washington man filed a lawsuit against T-Mobile for failing to protect his phone number, which eventually led to thousands of dollars’ worth of his cryptocurrency being stolen.

Back in November, Carlos Tapang was faced with a grim situation in which his phone number was compromised by malicious actors. The hackers were able to port his number to an account under their control on AT&T, and reset his account passwords most likely though SMS-based two-factor authentication.

According to a recent report from Law360, Tapang’s complaint involves targeting T-Mobile for their inability to provide adequate security measures to protect his account. The failure on the carrier’s end allowed malicious actors to port Tapang’s number out, and steal his cryptocurrency by gaining access to associated accounts."

"Meanwhile, however, as a result of T-Mobile’s failure to provide reasonable and appropriate security to prevent unauthorized access to Mr. Tapang’s wireless account, after getting control of Mr. Tapang’s phone number, wrongdoers were able to change Mr. Tapang’s password on one of his cryptocurrency accounts and drain most of the contents— 1,000 units of OmiseGo (“OMG”) tokens and 19.6 units of BitConnect coin (“BCC”), which the wrongdoers sold for 2.875 Bitcoin (“BTC”) and then transferred out of his account."

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - Exchange Account Drained TMobile Sim Swap Carlos Tapang

Date	Event	Description
November 7th, 2017	Account Drained	Carlos Tapang's exchange account is drained of hit OmiseGo and BitConnect coins.
February 4th, 2018	Lawsuit Filed	Carlos Tapang files a lawsuit against TMobile.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost has been estimated at $12,000 USD.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.