On Wednesday, a U.S. Cryptocurrency investor filed a Lawsuit of $224 million against the telecommunication giant, AT&T over his loss of cryptocurrency worth close to $24 million to hackers.
Michael Terpin who filed a 69-page complaint in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, insisted that it was as a result of “AT&T’s willing cooperation with the hacker, gross negligence, violation of its statutory duties, and failure to adhere to its commitment in its privacy policy,” made him to lose in the neighbourhood of $24 million worth of cryptocurrency.
Twice a Victim!
Terpin who has been twice a victim of hack attack within a space of seven months, insisted that the occurrence was not a mere happenstance but that the hacker may have colluded with an insider. The AT&T has been his service provider and he believes that the digital tokens were stolen via a “digital identity theft” of his Cellphone account.
In his complaint after the first hack, Terpin alleged that there was no way the imposter would have accessed his phone number without an “insider cooperating with the hacker”, else it would have been nipped in the bud if an AT&T store personnel demanded he showed a valid identification or provided requisite password. Thereafter, the phone number was handy in getting through into Terpin’s crypto account.
The complaint continued:
“What AT&D did was like a hotel giving a thief with a fake I.D. a room key and a key to the room safe to steal jewelry in the safe from the rightful owner.”
AT&T Kicks!
AT&T responded in an email saying “we dispute these allegations and look forward to presenting our case in court.”
However, the victim, Mr. Terpin is asking for $200 million in punitive damages with $24 million as compensatory damages from AT&T. It could be recalled that in 2013, Terpin co-founded an angel group for bicoin investors known as BitAngels and a digital currency fund, BitAngels/Dapps Fund.
