BT's records helped police find a SIM swapper jailed over nearly $260,000 in crypto
Inner London Crown Court jailed Ajay Shinjin for two and a half years for helping steal nearly $260,000 in crypto through SIM swaps. Once the victims' numbers moved, their texted security codes went to the thieves, and BT was the one that noticed.
The Watch · Security desk
What happened
- Investigators traced the number transfers to several eSIM-capable devices and linked Shinjin to four of them.
- Police said Shinjin helped facilitate two of the thefts, worth about £8,000 and £130,000, even though that money was transferred to other accounts.
- He was first arrested at his London apartment in 2021 and again at Heathrow in October 2023 after returning from Dubai, once police had found more evidence.
- Shinjin, also known as AJ Marley Cruz, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and transferring criminal property.
Why it matters
- Who's exposed exposure Any bank or crypto account that accepts a texted one-time code can be opened by whoever controls the number. In this case, getting that control took a transfer at the carrier.
- What it limits constraint Account providers that rely on SMS codes are only as fast as the carrier's fraud monitoring, and they do not run that system or get to inspect it.
- Who has to decide decision Exchanges and banks now have a prosecuted case to point to when moving login and recovery codes to app or hardware factors that a number transfer cannot capture.
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The chain needed one thing from each victim: control of the phone number. The group transferred victims' numbers onto SIM cards it controlled [8]. From that point the one-time codes sent by text went to the thieves, and those codes were enough to get past the protections on bank accounts and crypto wallets [10].
Detection sat with the carrier. BT identified unauthorized activity on its own systems and found customer numbers sitting on criminal-controlled SIMs [11]. The report does not say when BT spotted the transfers or whether any were reversed before money left. Each of the four victims police identified still lost cryptocurrency [3][5][7], so whatever BT saw came too late for them.
The four itemized losses add up to about £195,000 [16]. About £44,000 of that, roughly 23%, was traced into Shinjin's own account and wallet [17][18]. The largest single theft, about £130,000, is about two-thirds of the total [19]. City of London Police said he spent the stolen funds on luxury holidays in Dubai and gold-plated dental grills [6].
Detective Constable Simon Ardeman of City of London Police said the scheme was "a complex and calculated fraud that caused significant financial harm to a number of victims" [14]. "SIM-swap fraud is a sophisticated and increasingly concerning form of offending," he said [15].
The evidence in this case is narrower than that warning. It covers four accounts compromised in the first week of November 2021 [1], by a group in which Shinjin was one of several suspects [12].
What to watch
- Charges or sentences for the other suspects BT's data helped police identify in the same scheme.
- Any BT statement on how quickly it now flags numbers moved to new eSIMs, and whether it can catch a transfer before codes are sent.
- Confiscation or compensation proceedings against Shinjin over the roughly £44,000 traced to his own wallets.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence72
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+5
- Incentives30
- Confidence78
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers- Builder
- Builder 28%
- Operator
- Operator 55%
- Investor
- Investor 17%
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Police identified four victims whose cryptocurrency accounts were compromised during the first week of November 2021.
- [2]
Ajay Shinjin, 25, of Canary Wharf, London, who helped steal nearly $260,000 in cryptocurrency through a SIM-swapping fraud scheme, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison at Inner London Crown Court on Thursday.
- [3]
One victim lost approximately £40,000 in cryptocurrency, with about £27,000 transferred into Shinjin's personal cryptocurrency account.
- [4]
Shinjin, also known as AJ Marley Cruz, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and transferring criminal property.
- [5]
A second victim had approximately £17,000 stolen, and investigators traced the entire amount to Shinjin's cryptocurrency wallet.
- [6]
According to City of London Police, Shinjin used the stolen funds to finance an expensive lifestyle that included luxury holidays in Dubai and gold-plated dental grills.
- [7]
A third victim lost about £8,000 from a Coinbase account, and a fourth had approximately £130,000 worth of cryptocurrency stolen.
- [8]
The fraud took place in November 2021, when criminals transferred victims' phone numbers to SIM cards controlled by the fraudsters to gain access to their cryptocurrency accounts.
- [9]
Police said Shinjin helped facilitate the third and fourth thefts (about £8,000 and about £130,000), although the stolen funds were transferred elsewhere.
- [10]
The criminals intercepted one-time security codes sent by text message, allowing them to bypass account protections and access bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.
- [11]
BT identified unauthorized activity on its systems and discovered that customer telephone numbers had been transferred to SIM cards controlled by criminals.
- [12]
Investigators traced the activity to several devices capable of using eSIMs; data provided by BT helped police identify several suspects, including Shinjin, who was linked to four devices used in the scheme.
- [13]
Shinjin was first arrested at his London apartment in 2021 and arrested again at Heathrow Airport in October 2023 after returning from Dubai, following the discovery of additional evidence; he declined to answer questions in police interviews.
- [14]
a complex and calculated fraud that caused significant financial harm to a number of victims
- [15]
SIM-swap fraud is a sophisticated and increasingly concerning form of offending.
- [16]
The four itemized victim losses total about £195,000.
- [17]
About £44,000 of the stolen cryptocurrency was traced into Shinjin's own account and wallet.
- [18]
The amount traced to Shinjin's own account and wallet is roughly 23% of the itemized losses.
- [19]
The largest single theft, about £130,000, is about two-thirds of the itemized losses.
Sources
3 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- cryptopolitan.comSIM-swap ring stole almost £200,000 in crypto from four BT customers
1 article · October 9, 2026
- decrypt.coSIM-Swap Fraudster Who Spent Stolen Crypto on Gold Grills and Dubai Trips Jailed
1 article · October 9, 2026
- therecord.mediaCrypto thief who splurged on gold grills sentenced in London
1 article · October 8, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- SMS two-factor authentication
- Cryptocurrency theft
Entities
- BT
- Inner London Crown Court
- City of London Police
- Coinbase