Canadian Teen Charged for $50 Million Cryptocurrency Theft

An eighteen-year-old from Montreal is facing four criminal charges connected to a $50 million SIM-swapping scam targeting cryptocurrency holders, Infosecurity Magazine reported on Jan. 17.

The hacker, Samy Bensaci, is accused by Canadian authorities of being part of a ring that stole millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from American and Canadian holders. The theft is said to have occurred in spring of 2018, with Québec police representative Hugo Fournier saying that the hackers were responsible for the theft of “$50 million from our neighbors to the south and $300,000 in Canada.”

Among the purported victims were Don and Alex Tapscott, renowned Canadian crypto entrepreneurs and co-authors of the book “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World.”

Don Tapscott confirmed to The Star to have been targeted by the scheme, while denying that the hackers succeeded in stealing his funds:

“We can confirm that last year a hacker…