Quote:Terpin co-founded the first angel group for Bitcoin investors, called BitAngels, in 2013. A year later, he co-founded the first digital currency funding group, BitAngels/Dapps Fund.

In January, Terpin was robbed of millions of cryptocurrency tokens, worth $23.8 million at the time. According to Terpin’s lawsuit filing, the attack happened through what is called a “SIM swap fraud.” Criminals use this relatively common tactic to transfer a victim’s phone number to their own phone by contacting the wireless carrier and pretending to be the victim.

The complaint says:

"What AT&T did was like a hotel giving a thief with a fake ID a room key and a key to the room safe to steal jewelry in the safe from the rightful owner.”

Criminals employ this tactic because many internet services and their users continue to use SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect their accounts, despite this method of authentication being declared no longer secure by the National Institute of Standards and Technology more than two years ago.

Terpin now wants AT&T, which he considers the sole responsible party for the attack, to give him the $24 million back, as well as pay him an additional $200 million as punitive damages. AT&T said that it disputes the allegations.