A federal judge won’t let AT&T Inc. avoid a case that’s getting attention in the cryptocurrency arena.
Judge Otis Wright has turned downed the company’s push to get a case thrown out, in part, from an AT&T customer, Michael Terpin, according to a court filing earlier this month.
The incident began for Terpin in 2017 when his phone suddenly became inoperable because his cell phone number had been hacked, according to the judge’s document. Hackers were able to change his password remotely and this allowed the hackers to gain control of the phone number, which allowed them to divert his personal information.
The hackers used Terpin’s telephone number to access his cryptocurrency accounts and also impersonated him by using his Skype account. Later that day, AT&T (NYSE: T) was able to cutoff the hackers’ access to Terpin’s telephone number but “substantial funds” had already been stolen.
After a meeting with AT&T, the company promised to place Terpin’s account “on a higher security level with special protection,” the suit said.
But on Jan. 7, 2018, Terpin’s phone again became inoperable, and he eventually learned that an employee at an AT&T store assisted an imposter with a “SIM card swap,” the documents said.
By having access to Terpin’s phone number, he says that “the hackers were able to intercept Mr. Terpin’s personal information, including telephone calls and text messages, and gain access to his cryptocurrency accounts,” the judge said in the document.
As a result, Terpin alleges that the imposter stole nearly $24 million worth of cryptocurrency from him.
While AT&T’s customer agreement seeks to free it from some liabilities, Terpin says that it “is unconscionable and contrary to public policy,” according to the judge’s writings in the document.
AT&T had been direct in its assessment to the lawsuit, which was first brought last year.
“Terpin’s complaint overreaches at every turn in his attempt to blame AT&T for conduct that it did not control, and for harm that should be assigned to the alleged intentional misconduct of third-party hackers and the negligence of Terpin himself, if in fact any loss occurred at all,” AT&T said last year in a filing.
But AT&T will need to continue to address this case.
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