- Scammers are conducting sim swaps in an attempt to gain control of Friend.tech users’ accounts
- One scammer siphoned roughly 234 ETH from different Friend.tech users through this method
- The crypto community is advising against providing mobile phone numbers on social media profiles
Scammers are riding on the hype around the Friend.tech app swapping phone numbers of the app’s users to steal cryptocurrency. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has unearthed that one scammer is responsible for four sim swap hacks which have netted him a cumulative 234 ETH. Some in the cybersecurity field have warned against providing mobile phone numbers on social media profiles saying that it simplifies the work for scammers.
Sim Swap from an Apple Store
Some of the victims have posted on X (formerly Twitter) lamenting the loss of funds. One victim claimed the scammer managed to conduct a sim swap “from an Apple store,”
The same scammer profited $385K (234 ETH) in the past 24 hours off SIM swapping four different FriendTech users. pic.twitter.com/03BoBEqGax
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 4, 2023
The current scammer activities targeting Friend.tech users are the second to be reported this week. On October 3, Friend.tech users reported losing over 100 ETH to scammers conducting sim swaps to gain control of their crypto wallets.
According to one of the victims to first report such a case, the malicious actors made unending “phone calls” to him in an attempt to distract him from seeing a text message from his service provider notifying him of an attempt to swap his phone number.
I was just SIM swapped and robbed of 22 ETH via @friendtech
The 34 of my own keys that I owned were sold, rugging anyone who held my key, all the other keys I owned were sold, and the rest of the ETH in my wallet was drained.
If your Twitter account is doxxed to your real… pic.twitter.com/5wA86mjYEG
— daren (friend, friend) (@darengb) October 3, 2023
Friend.tech responded to the sim swap incidents noting that users can “now add and remove log in methods for” their accounts.
You can now add and remove log in methods for your https://t.co/YOHabcBL3H account. To access these settings, tap your wallet balance in the top right corner of the app pic.twitter.com/d37VWVk2Eb
— friend.tech (@friendtech) October 4, 2023
Vitalik Buterin is also a Victim
The crypto community has asked social media users to remove their numbers from their profiles and requested social media platforms like X to provide other 2FA security measures to reduce sim swap cases. The cases come a month after Friend.tech threatened to withhold benefits of disloyal users.
Some top entities in the crypto space to recently suffer such an attack include Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Coinbase has also been accused of not preventing a customer’s loss of funds after a sim swap attack.
With scammers targeting Friend.tech users, it’s likely they’ll also go for users on other upcoming crypto platforms employing phone number-tied 2FA authentication.
