An AT&T customer is suing the company for failed security measures that allegedly lead to crypto theft.

An AT&T customer filed a lawsuit directly against the company with accusations that it had failed to provide a “reasonable and appropriate security” that could have prevented unauthorized access to the person’s wireless accounts. This eventually led to the crypto theft from the customer’s crypto exchange account.

Ethereum Crypto Theft

Jamarquis Etheridge, an AT&T customer, filed a lawsuit in the South District of Texas district court against both AT&T Inc. and AT&T Mobility LLC. Etheridge was a resident of Texas and had also been an AT&T customer ever since 2009, according to the story by News.Bitcoin.com.

The customer claims to be a victim of “SIM hijacking” or “SIM swapping.” This type of scam is not the first for AT&T customers. The company was also involved in a much bigger case with yet another crypto investor known as Michael Terpin.

AT&T Customer Victim of Crypto Theft

The court document that was filed by Etheridge’s attorney, Richard E. Brown, notes that in September 2020, AT&T actually allowed wrongdoers to gain access to Etheridge’s wireless accounts without the owner’s authorization. AT&T was not able to contain this particular security breach until the day after which led to crypto theft of Etheridge’s crypto exchange account leaving it drained.

He also alleges that AT&T was aware of the “pervasive harm” that comes from SIM swapping. This is since the company issued public advisories that warned customers of the whole industry-wide threat to this scam.

Victim Lost 159.8 Ethereum Tokens

Etheridge also noted that AT&T even assues customers that it was actually exercising the needed measures in order to prevent unauthorized SIM swapping.

It was noted that AT&T failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security to be able to prevent unauthorized access to customer wireless accounts. This allowed unauthorized persons to act authenticated and gain access to customer’s wireless account data. This included access and control over a whopping 159.8 Ethereum tokens.

Etheridge is looking for compensation

After the said incident, the price of $ETC reached over $4,200 a coin according to court documents. The price of $ETH during the time of writing the story has fallen back to the $3,300 mark.

Aside from looking for compensatory as well as equitable relief restoring the 159.8 $ETH lost in the crypto theft, he is also looking for statutory damages, punitive damages, treble damages, award for attorney fees as well as reimbursement of all costs.