SIM-swap crypto thief jailed in London for 2.5 years
A London man who took part in a SIM-swapping scheme that drained nearly $260,000 in cryptocurrency from four victims has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
Ajay Shinjin, 25, from Canary Wharf, a business district in east London, was sentenced on Thursday at Inner London Crown Court. In England and Wales, the Crown Court hears serious criminal cases. Shinjin, who also goes by AJ Marley Cruz, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and to transferring criminal property.
According to City of London Police, he spent the proceeds on luxury holidays in Dubai and gold-plated dental grills.
How the scheme worked
The fraud took place in November 2021. The criminals moved victims' phone numbers onto SIM cards they controlled, which gave them control of the numbers.
With the numbers in hand, they could receive the one-time security codes that banks and crypto platforms send by text message. That let them get past account protections and into victims' bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.
The activity was first spotted by BT, the UK telecommunications company. It found unauthorized activity on its systems and discovered that customer phone numbers had been moved to SIM cards held by criminals.
Investigators followed the trail to several devices that support electronic SIM cards, or eSIMs. BT's data helped police identify a group of suspects. Shinjin was linked to four of the devices used in the scheme.
Four victims, one week
Police identified four victims whose crypto accounts were compromised in the first week of November 2021:
- One lost about GBP 40,000 ($58,000) in cryptocurrency, of which around GBP 27,000 ($35,000) went into Shinjin's personal crypto account.
- A second lost roughly GBP 17,000 ($22,000). Investigators traced all of it to Shinjin's wallet.
- A third had about GBP 8,000 ($10,000) taken from a Coinbase account.
- A fourth lost cryptocurrency worth about GBP 130,000 ($172,000).
Police said Shinjin helped facilitate the third and fourth thefts, although the funds in those cases were sent elsewhere.
Two arrests
Shinjin was first arrested at his London apartment in 2021. After additional evidence was found, he was arrested again in October 2023 at Heathrow Airport, on his return from Dubai. He declined to answer questions during police interviews.
Detective Constable Simon Ardeman of City of London Police called it "a complex and calculated fraud that caused significant financial harm to a number of victims." He added that "SIM-swap fraud is a sophisticated and increasingly concerning form of offending."
The force said the outcome shows that people who misuse technology for financial fraud will be held accountable. "This conviction sends a clear message that those who use technology to commit fraud will be brought to justice," police said.
Our Take
The case is a reminder that a phone number is a weak anchor for account security. Once attackers control the number, SMS codes stop protecting anything. This suggests that crypto holders in particular should move away from text-message codes wherever a platform offers stronger options. Our recent coverage of passkey adoption shows that even security professionals have been slow to make that switch.
It is also notable that the carrier, not the victims, spotted the abuse, and that BT's data was central to identifying suspects. The eSIM angle is worth watching too, as it shows how number transfers can happen without any physical card changing hands.
Timelines remain long. The thefts date to 2021, and the sentence came years later. Similar delays appear in other crypto theft prosecutions. It is worth watching whether the other suspects BT's data helped identify face charges, and whether UK carriers tighten controls on number transfers.