A Portland cybercrook's digital house of cards collapsed as he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for a SIM swapping scam, swindling millions in cryptocurrency. Daniel James Junk, 22, not only faced a stiff prison sentence but is also staring down the barrel of a $3 million restitution order, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Monday.
In doing his dirty work from December 2019 through March 2022, Junk tangled himself in a web of online fraud, worming his way into victims' crypto wallets by hijacking their cell phone accounts. With the scam, calls and texts intended for the victims are instead sent to phones controlled by the fraudster, a tactic that enables unauthorized access to private accounts secured by two-factor authentication—e-mail and cryptocurrency exchanges being the prime targets.
The FBI got wise to Junk's scheme, catching him red-handed with an active browser open to illegally accessed accounts during a raid on his apartment on March 3, 2022. They bagged 71 bitcoin—then valued at about $3 million—from Junk, with the defeated fraudster later coughing up an additional 33 bitcoin, estimated to be worth $1 million.
Law enforcement kept after him, sniffing out a stash of damning evidence in earlier this month, just ahead of Junk's sentencing. Among the dirty laundry was a trove of target lists and some 25,000 compromised e-mail addresses that no doubt laid the groundwork for many of Junk's ill-gotten gains. After this discovery, Junk was cuffed and stuffed, having his release revoked pending sentencing, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
This high-stakes game of digital deception and theft was brought to light through diligent work by both the FBI and the Portland Police Bureau, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Quinn P. Harrington steering the prosecution, dragging Junk from the shadows of the cyber underworld into the stark light of the justice system's courtroom.
