On Thursday, October 8, 2026, the Daily Mail reported that a 25-year-old London man has been jailed for stealing nearly £200,000 in cryptocurrency from multiple victims through SIM-swap fraud, then spending the proceeds on gold-plated dental grills, a high-end apartment and luxury trips to Dubai.
Ajay Shinjin, of Canary Wharf, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison at Inner London Crown Court. He is also known as AJ Marley Cruz.
Shinjin was first arrested at his home in 2021. Police detained him a second time at Heathrow Airport in October 2023, as he returned to the United Kingdom from Dubai, after further evidence emerged. Bodycam footage shows officers approaching him, handcuffing him and placing a coat over his hands.
He was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and one count of transferring criminal property. He pleaded guilty at the same court on September 28.
The case dates to early November 2021, when phone company BT detected unauthorized activity on its systems. Customers’ phone numbers were being moved onto SIM cards controlled by criminals, a practice known as SIM-swapping. With control of a number, the offenders could receive one-time passcodes sent by text message and use them to get into victims’ bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.
In the course of its investigation, BT identified the devices that had received the transferred numbers. Each was eSIM-enabled and had two IMEI numbers. The data led police to several suspects, including Shinjin, who was linked to four of the SIM-swap devices. The victims in the case all reported crimes that took place during the first week of November 2021.
One victim lost about £40,000 in cryptocurrency on November 2, 2021. Roughly £27,000 of that went into Shinjin’s personal crypto account.
A second victim had around £17,000 in cryptocurrency taken between November 5 and 7. It was later found in Shinjin’s personal crypto wallet.
A third victim had approximately £8,000 taken from a Coinbase account on November 3. Shinjin facilitated that theft and then sent the money elsewhere.
A fourth victim lost about £130,000 in cryptocurrency between November 6 and 7. Shinjin also facilitated that theft.
When police interviewed him, Shinjin answered “no comment” to every question.
Detective Constable Simon Ardeman of the City of London Police described the offending as complex and calculated, and said it caused significant financial harm to several victims. He said Shinjin deliberately exploited SIM-swap technology to reach cryptocurrency accounts and take nearly £200,000. He called SIM-swap fraud a sophisticated and increasingly worrying type of crime, and said the conviction shows that people who use technology to commit fraud will be brought to justice.
The case comes amid a rise in SIM-swap fraud, in which criminals access bank accounts, crypto accounts and other valuable apps by taking control of a person’s phone number.
The fraud typically begins with the offender collecting personal details through phishing emails, social engineering, data breaches or social media posts. The fraudster then impersonates the victim to pass a phone provider’s security checks and persuades the provider to move the service to a SIM they hold. That gives them control of the number, letting them change passwords and receive calls, texts, emails and two-factor authentication codes.
Warning signs include a phone that suddenly stops connecting or cannot make calls or send texts. Unsolicited messages about a SIM being ported or a PAC request are another sign.
Source: Daily Mail
Be the first to comment