Topic: ==- Sim Kids - What happens when Bitcoin fails -== (Read 377 times)

This is just one of the ways to clone a SIM card, but it can also be done with physical contact where the victim's SIM card is imperceptibly removed and cloned without any great technical knowledge. Such people are usually very careless with their smartphones, and very often they publicly brag that they own crypto, and in addition they store it online. All this together is nothing but a call to thieves to rob them, and if the thieves were a little more intelligent police would probably never catch them.

Someone can say whatever they want about it, but I would call it a festival of human stupidity in action.

What the hell is Sim swapping and how can a kid/teenager make 2 million USD in a short amount of time?
Is it some sort of hacking/carding?
I googled "sim swapping" and it seems that this is some kind of social engineering scam,where the kids are trying to convince the call center support and freak the 2-factor authentication of some crypto trading account.Damn,those teenagers can be very manipulative.
Well,if they get caught,at least they will have enough money to pay for a good layer,I guess.
I don't think that they will HODL their cryptocurrenices for 10 years,while they are staying in prison.Seems like a stupid move.

The whole micro chip in the body thing is stupid in my opinion. You can put that microchip in your clothing or a necklace or a watch or any item that you have with you every day, why must this be within your body? (You can have several micro chips and have them hidden in different items) 

In any way, the Sim swapping are done with the assistance of people working with your service provider. So no matter what you do, the human element will always sneak in. (The same goes for micro chips... who says a corrupt worker at the manufacturing facility, can not be forced to "clone" these chips for syndicates ?)

Sim swaps are relevant to Crypto currencies, because many people use them as 2FA to access their exchange accounts or their online wallets or even gambling sites. 

Crime relating to sim swaps and data cloning are so common. I always wonder why states like sweden are not more susceptible. Microchips containing financial data embedded in peoples hands and bodies could be easier to swipe than data on a cellphone. Sweden has a very high prevalence of microchipped consumers. Which one might expect would make them a golden opportunity for those carrying out these types of thefts.

As for the actual SIM swaps I don't think bitcoin or crypto are relevent. The actual theft and purchases are carried out utilizing digital fiat. They only turn to crypto/btc for attempted long term storage. Other currencies could be better methods as they would leave less of a paper trail and be more difficult to trace than a bitcoin transaction.




https://www.sho.com/video/70922/vice-series-premiere-tvma

Showtime appears to be airing the episode for free.

There shouldn't be any copyright issues associated with that link.

The films do not discuss matters and complexities in detail, they know that it is difficult to track bitcoin so they add them to the movie or series in order to gain more sense for their story and make it more believable.

I expect that after many people know that it is possible to track bitcoin transactions, they will appear using Monero or any privacy coins for purchase of these equipment and devices.

if you have power to earn 200000 in bitcoin will have more ways to hide it.

Yes, these guys go out on Social media and they flaunt their new found wealth with videos of them drinking the most expensive Champaign and wearing the most expensive clothing and watches and other people see this and they report them, because they know these people and they also know they do not have high paying jobs or inheritance.  (jealousy also come into play)

In my country you do almost 50% of the original sentence on good behavior, so these guys will be out in 5 years. Seeing that this is not a violent crime, some businesses might employ them.. but they will not work in any position where finances are handled.

The law enforcement agencies can only confiscate whatever they seize, so if these guys have bitcoins stored somewhere away from their residence, then those bitcoins will not be confiscated. (These guys use mixer services and they store it on online sites and also paper wallets) 

Additional flaw:

Having a job from employment is not the only way of earning money.  Taking the scenario given by OP, I am sure the character has enough money to set up a business when they convert their Bitcoin or cryptocurrency to cash.  Becoming an entrepreneur does not discriminate people with not so good background as long as they have the resources needed.

Criminal groups are still very small if you compare them to normal users of Bitcoin.

OP is asking questions about their morality and life choices but should we really care what life choices some thieve makes? Should we feel bad when he gets caught or his Bitcoin holdings lose value when he's out of jail?

His situation is dire anyway because if Bitcoin goes to 100 thousand USD per coin in the next 10 years he still won't be able to spend the money because the authorities will be watching him when he leaves prison. If he buys a new car or a house they'll confiscate it because there's no way a released prisoner can earn money so fast. They'll know it was bought with stolen money.

There are actual cases wherein a teenager is really involved in such a scheme, and it's great that VICE reiterates the possibilities of such an attack for people to know that this is where technology headed to. For the teens, most of them are egoistic lads boosted by testosterone and are careless enough to get caught. Most of them aren't really going to serve the full term of their sentence for 'good conduct' and might even see themselves landing up a decent job after their incarceration.


I don't think they'd even be able to keep those money when they are caught. Maybe some of the stash if they are clever enough to split it but certainly not all. Also, you are underestimating the power of bitcoin's hype. We may have experienced steep declines from time to time but overall for the last decade we're still on the upsides.

Would be nice if you provided a link to the documentary if it's available for free on Youtube or somewhere else.

10 years for 2 mil doesn't sound like a good deal at all, freedom and time are far more precious than money. You can be happy even with just a little money, but you won't be happy in all the money in the world if you can't enjoy even basic things.

Inflation won't be a problem, since they keep their money in Bitcoin, but volatility is indeed a risk. Which makes their strategy a really stupid one, because not only their best case is not worth it, their worst case is going to jail for max term and not getting anything.

These kind of crimes are not happening because they have cryptocurrencies to hide their loot, criminals will always find a way to store their money and hopefully all of these criminals will be brought to justice as you cannot hide your crimes with bitcoin and with regulations expected to be implemented soon in the cryptocurrency market and when that happens the so called anonymous coins will be forced away from exchanges.

Well, they could always start spending those even if they are still serving their jail sentences. The good thing with Bitcoin is that you don't have to queue up in banks or at ATMs or at currency exchange shops. You need not present yourself physically, or your identification card, or any documents. They could easily do transactions over any of their family's smart phone during visiting hours, move some funds for them to spend, and then worry not over the remaining funds. For sure, the value of Bitcoin has already climbed up much much higher ten years later.   

Isn't using Bitcoin for illegal stuff not the best option? Why not Monero or something similar, so that transactions are not public? I don't understand how they're planning to spend the money after prison, though. I thought illegal money is usually confiscated... They should not seriously have an option of spending whatever becomes from $2 million worth of BTC in 10 years, that doesn't make any sense.
As for those thoughts about criminal record and $2 million being not that much, I strongly disagree. The vast majority of people won't ever make that much money even if they work really hard. In my country, the average salary is $5k per year. It would take a person 400 years to earn 2 million dollars.

Worse, you won't get out alive.

I think they have mistaken bitcoin with something else.
A lot does.
Feeding wrong information to people creates this kind of future for this great currency.
I'd rather use that 10 years doing something else rather than being locked up.

Their future could be criminals again once they got back to the street.

Maybe, they are just unaware and they are very confident in stealing money and turning it into a cryptocurrency is an outstanding move for them. The only thing that they failed was getting caught by the authority, but it is still amazing that young people are able to do those kind of things even if it is against the anyone and especially to the authority.


Bitcoin's price only matters it undergo a huge improvement or increase but if its price is stable and in a downward position in a market, then it feels like a dead currency that you should not use in transactions. That 10 years will really make a huge impact to bitcoin's price, we just really don't know if it is a good or bad changes in price.

And yet druggists are everywhere and in the US they get vast sentences handed out like sweeties.

I can't imagine many people ease up and go into contented retirement. They get greedier and cockier the longer they go on. You may start off sim swapping and wind up a total degenerate. Once you get into money laundering the target on your back grows a whole lot bigger.

By definition SIM swapping is "(also known as port-out scam, SIM splitting, and simjacking, SIM swapping) is a type of account takeover fraud that generally targets a weakness in two-factor authentication and two-step verification in which the second factor or step is a text message (SMS) or call placed to a mobile telephone."

It's actually about hacking the accounts of crypto users and stealing their crypto, not about hiding any earnings as you described. Hiding earnings in crypto would be subject to tax evasion which is also a criminal offense, but in this particular case it has nothing to do with SIM swapping.

As for prison sentences and spending money, they do not have to serve a full 10 years (many will come out much earlier), and money can be spent in prison, also it is desirable to have it because then prison life is much easier. In addition to all this, the government has a great responsibility for such crimes because it actually encourages young people to do such things by prescribing relatively small prison sentences. If the sentence was a minimum of 40 years, then very few would risk spending their entire lives behind bars.

You added some very good points to this discussion. I have not even considered the implications of Quantum computing and what impact it will have on our coins in the future. I reckon the encryption will be "upgraded" to nullify the impact of stronger computing and we will have to shift our coins to addresses with stronger encryption. ( A person in jail will not be able to do that, so his/her coins will be stolen)

Yes, prison is also not a nice holiday.... people get hurt or die in those places and not having the freedom to do what en when you want, is not my idea of spending my life. (Not worth any amount of money)

What about the early adopters of bitcoin? Did they think about that too? Because I don't think that they are okay about inflation, and I am sure that they still hold their bitcoin for more than 8 years, and only sell it for some amount to get the fiat.

I am sure that if bitcoin price will increase higher in the next 10 years, and that is happening for people who hold their bitcoin since 2012 and sold it in 2017-2018. But if I have much bitcoin like that movie, I will not let other people know, and I only sell some bitcoin to local sellers, which I trust.

I am confident Bitcoin will still be here in ten years. I'd be vastly less confident of being able to realise questionable funds ten years from now. Lord knows how good surveillance will be by then and how uptight any exchange will be. Anything of any value will have a black market but that might bid you in the balls when it becomes clear how dirty your money is.

During that time I'd have little doubt my funds would be labelled and watched closely. I'd go in smug about my little stash and emerge to find it had turned radioactive. And there's also that quantum computing thing which may mean someone has them away when you couldn't migrate and were helpless to do anything about it.

Once you get out you might have been stabbed and beaten countless times, raped a million times over, your family and friends may have abandoned you, you'll never get a job, may not be able to travel internationally and your health, both physical and psychological, may be in ruins.

$2 million for that and losing ten years of your life does not sound like a deal to me, but criminals are truly mindless people.

No sorry, Mate.. no can do.. This is a TV series - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_(TV_series) .. so there will be Copyright issues. 


Yes, there are much better ways to "hide" that, but many of these things will leave a paper trail. Bitcoin does not leave a paper trail and you can dump those bitcoins onto a paper wallet and then laminate it and dig a hole and hide it.

The title was not meant to be "Clickbait" .... I just did not have any other way to word this more appropriately. What would have been a better title according to you? 

They store all their money on bitcoin/crypto? For sure?

If it were me, I'd diversify the funds to various things. Let's say gold (there are dozens of gold vaults that don't care about your identity and operate on an anonymous basis), off-shore banking, etc.

Btw, I think the title is a bit of a clickbait. I thought it was a simulation of the world where the bitcoin price fell to nothing, but here we're talking about the possibility of the future.

Both things can happen, either it will go to moon or as you stated it might just drop to hell. More interesting thing would be looking those kids heart beat going up and down everyday in the jail. They will surely serve double punishment. Lol. One would be the real jail stuff and the other would be stressing out of the prices that goes up and down everyday. Just imagine a cop on patrol making joke with them everyday about the price which has dropped a lot. They will cry like anything. Might just tell attorneys increase their jail time to lifetime. ROFL.

Hey mate, can you please share documentary video link. I am interested to watch that documentary.

I think that you have 2 flaws in this logic:

1. I think that criminals - especially very young ones - are doing that without really considering that they can get caught. ("I can easily outsmart them.")

2. The history has shown what great stuff can happen in 10 years. The finite supply of Bitcoin makes it best to hold for very long term, like 10 years, the chances to get sky high are very good. Bitcoin is getting more and more robust and the chances it'll fail and get to worth only pennies is slim. And if it didn't fail, then it's only a temporary drop (and they may have to hold a bit longer, although each drop has a considerably higher bottom than the previous and they may not need to).

So, I watched this documentary called "VICE" - Season 7 episode 1 and they discussed Sim swapping and how so-called Sim Kids are using Crypto currencies to hide their earnings through this crime. One of those kids have almost $2 000 000 in Crypto currencies hidden from the authorities and will be jailed for about 10 years for these crimes.

These people seem to think Bitcoin and other Crypto currencies would be a perfect way to store their illegal stash, earned from crime. They are bargaining on getting small sentences for these crimes and then getting out and spending those millions when they get out.

Doing 10 years for $2 000 000 might sound good to the average person, but what about inflation and also a possible collapse of the Bitcoin price. A lot can happen in 10 years.... heck we have seen a 80% drop in the price of Bitcoin in a matter of a few weeks.

Also remember that you would be stuck with a criminal record, so finding a good job will not be easy at all. That money will not last forever and when it is finished, your life will be ruined.

Imagine doing 10 years or more and then having to sell those bitcoins for a few Dollars, because the price collapsed whilst you were in jail. 
Most of these guys are hoping for the Moon and when they get out, it might just be as valuable as a rock on the ground.