SIM swap, cryptocurrency busts highlight new frontier for US tech cops – Tech News

Standing near the LAX security check, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Sgt Samy Tarazi waited for the suspected bitcoin thief to emerge. 

He had been tracking the 20-year-old Boston college student for months and now Tarazi and his team were about to make one of the first arrests of its kind in the country. 

When his investigation started, Tarazi knew little of the famed cryptocurrency or notorious SIM swapping tactic that hackers use to take over people’s smartphones – and essentially their digital lives. 

He learned on the fly after a Bay Area bitcoin investor reported a theft earlier this year. Now here he was watching Joel Ortiz appear from behind the security line, decked out in Gucci clothing, flashing the lavish lifestyle – including posh mansion rentals – that he reportedly enjoyed thanks to the millions of dollars he is charged with pilfering from more than a dozen victims from the Bay Area to Southern California. 

“These are kids with millions in their pockets…