San Antonio Pair Plead Guilty to SIM Swap Scheme

SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio man pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and computer fraud for a scheme utilizing Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) swapping.  SIM Swapping is an increasingly common method of fraud in which a victim’s cell phone carrier is compromised to re-assign a phone number from one SIM card to another.  This allows bad actors to intercept phone and text communications and use them to compromise the phone owner’s other accounts. 

According to court documents, Andrew Percy Trujillo, 22, along with his co-defendant Zena Elisa Dounson, 34, of San Antonio, devised a scheme to SIM swap mobile customers’ phones at a local AT&T store.  Dounson was employed at the store and allowed Trujillo to add himself as an authorized user to multiple victims’ AT&T accounts where Trujillo then ported a victim’s SIM card credentials to his own devices’ SIM cards.  This caused calls and texts to the victims’ phone numbers to be sent to devices controlled by Trujillo rather than the rightful owners.  Co-conspirators were able to  access the victims’ various cryptocurrency accounts and transfer out at least $250,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

Trujillo pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse as well as wire fraud. Dounson previously pleaded guilty to the same offense on September 27, 2022.  The co-defendants are currently set for sentencing on January 5, 2023.  Both defendants face up to five years in prison.  A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff of the Western District of Texas and FBI Special Agent in Charge Oliver E. Rich Jr. made the announcement.

The FBI is investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin Chung and Michael Galdo are prosecuting the case.

###