SMS 2FA is an illusion of security. 

> The moment you drop ur  phone number as an account recovery method is the moment you neutralize the threat of internal employee bypasses completely.

evestacker

More Details Emerge on Preston Pysh SIM Swap

By mid-2023, telecom employees were taking bribes to hijack Bitcoin people's phone numbers. Preston Pysh watched an attacker take his anyway, right after he'd already called in to stop it.

The month before, Blockchain Capital founder Bart Stephens lost $6.3 million after attackers took over his phone number. Bitcoinist tallied $13.3 million stolen across 54 SIM swaps in the first four months of 2023 alone. A lot of the wave ran on a simpler trick than hacking: pay a telecom employee roughly $300 and they push a number onto a new SIM themselves, bypass codes and all.

Pysh, co-host of We Study Billionaires, had watched the pattern hit other Bitcoin people and moved his important accounts off SMS codes onto authenticator apps months before his own number became a target.

On June 24, 2023, he noticed a SIM-reset attempt on his own number and called Verizon right away to flag it. About 40 minutes later, the swap went through anyway. Pysh said Verizon confirmed it was pushed through on an "employee bypass," the same shortcut behind the wider wave.

He got the number back in 25 minutes. The moment he did, a text hit his phone: someone was already trying to reset his email password by SMS. Losing the number was only step one.

Step two failed. His real accounts had dropped SMS as a login method months earlier, so the email reset went nowhere. The accounts that actually held anything were never reachable by a stolen phone number to begin with.

Part of an ongoing series on Bitcoin history. This event falls on June 25, 2023.

history

[*@daily\_btc\_lore*](https://x.com/daily_btc_lore) *| Daily Bitcoin History Threads*

June 25, 2023 | 3 years ago

# More Details Emerge on Preston Pysh SIM Swap

![](https://m.stacker.news/146200)

***

By mid-2023, telecom employees were taking bribes to hijack Bitcoin people's phone numbers. Preston Pysh watched an attacker take his anyway, right after he'd already called in to stop it.

## The Wave

The month before, Blockchain Capital founder Bart Stephens lost $6.3 million after attackers took over his phone number. Bitcoinist tallied $13.3 million stolen across 54 SIM swaps in the first four months of 2023 alone. A lot of the wave ran on a simpler trick than hacking: pay a telecom employee roughly $300 and they push a number onto a new SIM themselves, bypass codes and all.

## Already Hardened

Pysh, co-host of We Study Billionaires, had watched the pattern hit other Bitcoin people and moved his important accounts off SMS codes onto authenticator apps months before his own number became a target.

## The Attack Anyway

On June 24, 2023, he noticed a SIM-reset attempt on his own number and called Verizon right away to flag it. About 40 minutes later, the swap went through anyway. Pysh said Verizon confirmed it was pushed through on an "employee bypass," the same shortcut behind the wider wave.

## The Twist

He got the number back in 25 minutes. The moment he did, a text hit his phone: someone was already trying to reset his email password by SMS. Losing the number was only step one.

## Why It Failed

Step two failed. His real accounts had dropped SMS as a login method months earlier, so the email reset went nowhere. The accounts that actually held anything were never reachable by a stolen phone number to begin with.

***

*Part of an ongoing series on Bitcoin history. This event falls on June 25, 2023.*