Cryptocurrency investments have multiple risks associated with them. The first of these risks is that of price volatility - which his common knowledge by now. The other major risk factor is that of getting hacked. Considering that a large number of cryptocurrencies are stored on online wallets - they are at a risk of getting hacked. Recently, a man from Washington, who lost thousands of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies to a hacking attack has sued T-Mobile for lack of security.
Carlos Tapang, who lives in Washington has sued T-Mobile. His main charge against T-Mobile is that they “improperly allowed wrongdoers to access” his wireless account on November 7th last year. The hackers were able to cancel his number from T-Mobile and transfer it to AT&T under their control - following which they were able to access his funds.
Since the hackers had control of Tapang’s phone number, they were able to gain access to the account. He claims that 1,000 OMiseGo (OMG) tokens, as well as 19.6 BCC (BitConnect Coins), were stolen from his account. The hackers exchanged these tokens for 2.875 Bitcoins and sent these tokens to another wallet. Considering the price of Bitcoin on that day was $7118, the hackers stole over $20,466 from Carlos Tapang.
As per the lawsuit, Carlos alleges that T-Mobile is partly at fault because they had promised Carlos that they would add a PIN to his account before the hacking incident took place. Had they implemented this PIN on time, his account would have been safe. Tapang’s lawsuit alleges that hackers are able to call T-Mobile’s customer care support to gain access to users accounts.
The lawsuit alleges that the hackers keep calling customer care support multiple times till they get an agent who allows them access without any identity verification. The lawsuit lists a number of other T-Mobile users who have posted similar complaints in the past. If proven to be true, it would be a major blow to T-Mobile’s credibility in the markets as the weak security would be exposed.
Carlos Tapang’s lawsuit also states that he suffered emotional distress after the incident. Moreover, he wasn’t able to use his cell phone number and had to ‘expend time, energy and expense’ in order to get things back on track. He has sued T-Mobile for damages and also demands injunctive relief, where T-Mobile can be ordered to improve their security measures. While neither T-Mobile nor Carlos’s lawyer was available for a comment, such cases really make us wonder how safe is our cryptocurrency, even with all the appropriate security measures being in place.
There’s a popular belief in the cryptocurrency markets that online wallets or exchange based wallets are not safe.The safest alternative is considered to be hardware wallets. However, yesterday, a vulnerability was found in Ledger hardware wallets, which allowed hackers to intercept funds. Incidents like these cause more panic in a market which is already on a downward trend due to rising FUD. Stay alert! Trade safely.