CyberNew CyberNew
Threat Intelligence & APT The Record 1 week ago

Crypto thief who splurged on gold grills sentenced in London

CN
CyberNew Threat Research Desk
• Original Reporting: The Record
CyberNew Threat Intel Assessment
Assessed Severity: INFORMATIONAL
Impacted Surface
Enterprise Perimeter & Network Defense
Intelligence Sector
Threat Intelligence & APT

Analyst Takeaway

"Image: City of London Police Crypto thief who splurged on gold grills sentenced in London A 25-year-old man who helped steal nearly $260,000 in cryptocurrency through a SIM-swapping fraud scheme was sentenced to two and a half years in prison at a London court on Thursday. Ajay Shinjin, of Canary Wharf in London, used the stolen funds to finance an expensive lifestyle that included luxury..."

Recommended Defense & Mitigation

  • Threat Monitoring: Ingest published IOCs into SIEM/EDR detection rules for continuous telemetry monitoring.
  • Security Awareness: Alert staff and maintain baseline endpoint hardening across endpoints.
Curated & Verified by CyberNew Threat Intelligence Desk Standard Defense Framework (NIST / MITRE ATT&CK)
Sim-swapper
Image: City of London Police

Crypto thief who splurged on gold grills sentenced in London

A 25-year-old man who helped steal nearly $260,000 in cryptocurrency through a SIM-swapping fraud scheme was sentenced to two and a half years in prison at a London court on Thursday.

Ajay Shinjin, of Canary Wharf in London, used the stolen funds to finance an expensive lifestyle that included luxury holidays in Dubai and gold-plated dental grills, according to City of London Police.

Shinjin, also known as AJ Marley Cruz, was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court after pleading guilty in September to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and transferring criminal property.

The fraud took place in November 2021, when criminals took control of victims’ telephone numbers to gain access to their cryptocurrency accounts by transferring the victim’s phone numbers to SIM cards controlled by the fraudsters.

The criminals then intercepted one-time security codes sent by text message, allowing them to bypass account protections and access bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.

Telecommunications company BT identified unauthorized activity on its systems and discovered that customer telephone numbers had been transferred to SIM cards controlled by criminals.

Source Verification & Original Intelligence

This threat report was reviewed by CyberNew analysts and cross-referenced with primary security disclosures from The Record.

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