Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Cyber Fraud Enforcement Unit is charging two individuals involved in a sophisticated money laundering and grand-theft operation. According to Attorney General Moody’s CFEU and law enforcement investigation, Thomas Simmons solicited and paid Raymond Ortiz, an employee of a cellphone store in Florida, to execute SIM card swaps. This allowed Simmons to gain control of a victim’s cellphone remotely and bypass two-factor authentications to steal nearly $280,000 from the victim’s bank account.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “These defendants used a SIM card swap scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from an unsuspecting victim who was on a flight — and only noticed that the fraud took place after he was back on the ground. Thanks to our Cyber Fraud Enforcement Unit and our law enforcement partners, the only thing these sim swap criminals will be trading is their freedom for time behind bars.”

According to the investigation, Ortiz and Simmons executed a SIM card swap on the victim’s cellphone. After the SIM swap, Simmons waited until the victim got onto a flight and then bypassed two-factor authentications for a banking app while having control of the phone and while the victim could not stop the process. The victim only discovered the fraud after landing, when the victim’s phone would not resume normal operations. After securing the funds, Simmons bought cashier checks with the victim’s money, which were used on personal expenses. Simmons committed these offenses while already under federal indictment for bank fraud.