T-Mobile Sued After Scammer Empties NY Couple’s Coinbase Account

A New York couple is suing T-Mobile after they lost more than $130,000 in Coinbase and other assets because of an unauthorized SIM card swap that allowed a stranger to gain access to the couple’s private phone data.

The couple accuses T-Mobile of having a lax approach to security, failing to implement security measures to thwart scams like SIM card swaps, violating laws that protect the information of cell phone customers, and failing to properly train its employees to ensure privacy breaches don’t happen, the lawsuit alleges.

They’re seeking at least $1 million in damages, plus attorneys’ fees.

The incident at the center of the suit occurred in 2021 when someone walked into a T-Mobile store in Oakland, Calif., and asked the employees to initiate a SIM card swap on the couple’s account. A store manager authorized the swap without confirming the person’s identity, according to the complaint.

T-Mobile has known about the SIM card swapping issue for years, and the company was “very aware that its security was inadequate,” the complaint alleges. The suit cites the Federal Trade Commission, which has warned consumers of the scam.

Plaintiffs Feliks Roitman and Yekaterina Shkolnik were at home in New York when they got an email from T-Mobile customer service confirming the SIM change, and they subsequently lost service to their phones.

By the time T-Mobile restored access to their phones, Shkolnik’s Coinbase account had been drained of more than $106,000 worth of assets, and $25,000 had been stolen from her bank account.

“Given T-Mobile’s knowledge of the existence —and machinations—of this scam, its passive failure to do anything to remediate risks to its customers is aiding and abetting itself,” the complaint says.

T-Mobile didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Roitman and Shkolnik are represented by Sinayskaya Yuniver PC.

The case is Roitman v. T-Mobile USA Inc., E.D.N.Y., No. 1:23-cv-06159, Complaint 8/16/23.