A man in the UK has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for participating in a SIM swap scam and stealing nearly £200,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

On October 9, according to Decrypt, London police stated that 25-year-old London resident Ajay Shinjin was sentenced to two and a half years in prison by the Inner London Crown Court for his involvement in a "complex and carefully planned" SIM-swap fraud scheme that netted nearly £200,000 (approximately $265,000) in cryptocurrency. Shinjin had previously pleaded guilty to charges including fraudulent misrepresentation and transferring criminal property.

Investigations revealed that telecommunications operator BT detected unauthorized activity in its systems in November 2021, when customers' phone numbers were ported to SIM cards controlled by criminals to intercept one-time passwords (OTPs). After tracing the receiving devices, police identified Shinjin and other suspects. Shinjin obtained over £44,000 from the illicit funds, using them for a trip to Dubai, renting high-end apartments, buying gold-plated dental braces, and other purchases. According to data from the UK National Fraud Database, unauthorized SIM-swap incidents surged 402% year-on-year in the first half of 2026. Cybersecurity experts advise users to utilize authenticator applications for two-factor authentication (2FA) instead of relying on SMS verification.