- Gabe Leydon, CEO of two gaming companies, was the victim of a SIM swap attack inside an AT&T store
- This resulted in attackers conducting a phishing attack through his Twitter account
- The hackers managed to obtain 19 ETH and over a dozen NFTs
Mobile gaming legend Gabe Leydon has suffered a SIM card swap in an AT&T store, with ETH and NFTs stolen as a result. Leydon, whose company Machine Zone has changed the face of mobile gaming, also had his Twitter account hacked as a result of the attack, leading to links to phishing sites being posted through his account. This was all despite a SIM block supposedly being in place through the provider.
Mutant Ape Among Stolen NFTs
The hack on Leydon was revealed through his blockchain gaming company Limit Break, which alerted followers to the attack through its own Twitter account:
UPDATE: @gabrielleydon account was sim swapped in a ATT store in the US 5:39pm EST. To the person running currently posting to the hacked account we will find you and we will be pressing charges and seeking damages.
— Limit Break (@limitbreak) November 3, 2022
The fake tweet from Leydon led to a phishing site that stole from visitors who connected their wallets. It has since been removed, but not before 19 ETH and over a dozen NFTs could be taken. This included a Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT, which was immediately sold for 11.5 ETH.
Once word got round that Leydon had been hacked, the attackers posted another tweet from Leydon’s account saying that, no, he hadn’t been hacked, and that the offer was genuine. This tweet, too, has now been removed.
AT&T Has History When it Comes to SIM Swaps
The fact that Leydon was compromised when a SIM block was on his phone, and then in an actual AT&T store itself, is quite remarkable, but sadly it fits a pattern that has been established in recent years with AT&T – the communications company seems to be vulnerable when it comes to such attacks, with one victim taken for over $20 million in crypto by a high school boy who purposely targeted AT&T in 2018, and another similar case ongoing.
