Your phone number can be hijacked in minutes. This crypto scam shows how; check full details
A 25-year-old UK man has been jailed for 2.5 years for helping steal nearly £200,000 in crypto via SIM-swap fraud. Here is how the scam worked and what happened
PTC Web Desk: A UK court has jailed a 25-year-old man for his role in a crypto theft that used SIM-swap fraud. The gang stole nearly £200,000, which is around Rs 2.5 crore.
Ajay Shinjin, also known as AJ Marley Cruz, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. The sentence was handed down at Inner London Crown Court on Thursday, October 8. He had earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and to transferring criminal property. His plea came on September 28.
City of London Police said Shinjin received over £44,000 (about Rs 56 lakh) of the stolen money. He spent it on luxury holidays in Dubai, an upmarket flat in Canary Wharf, London and gold-plated teeth grills.
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How the case began
The case goes back to November 2021. Telecom company BT noticed unauthorised activity on its systems. Some customers’ phone numbers had been moved to SIM cards controlled by criminals. With those numbers in hand, the gang could get into the victims’ crypto accounts and take their money.
What is SIM swapping?
In SIM swapping, a fraudster moves a victim’s phone number to a SIM card or device that they control. Once that happens, every text message meant for the victim goes to the fraudster instead.
This includes one-time passwords (OTPs). Many accounts use SMS codes as a security check. With those codes, criminals can log in and empty the account.
How Shinjin was traced
BT’s investigation found the devices that had received the stolen numbers. They were eSIM-enabled and each had two IMEI numbers. The data BT shared helped police identify several suspects. Shinjin was linked to four of these devices.
Police found four victims in total.
One victim lost about £40,000 in crypto on November 2, 2021. Around £27,000 of it went to Shinjin’s personal crypto account. A second victim lost about £17,000 between November 5 and 7. All of it was traced to Shinjin’s crypto wallet.
A third victim had about £8,000 taken from a Coinbase account on November 3. Police said Shinjin helped carry out this theft.
A fourth victim lost about £130,000 between November 6 and 7. The police said Shinjin helped with this theft too.
Arrested twice
Shinjin was first arrested at his flat in 2021. He was arrested again at Heathrow Airport in October 2023. He had just returned from Dubai, and new evidence had come to light.
He was later charged. He pleaded guilty on September 28, 2026, and was sentenced last Thursday.
Detective Constable Simon Ardeman of the City of London Police called it a complex and calculated fraud. He said it caused serious financial harm to several victims.
“SIM-swap fraud is a sophisticated and increasingly concerning form of offending,” he said. He added that the conviction sends a clear message. People who use technology to commit fraud will be brought to justice.