All language subtitles for VICE S07E01

[Hind]
What people see on TV

is that women who lived
under Islamic State

are very submissive.

They're housewives...

[indistinct yelling]

♪ dramatic music ♪

This is crazy,
because these kids are saying

that they are going
to bring back Islamic State.

Islamic State will not stop.

[distorted]
You basically just...

made money
for doing nothing:

um, a phone call
and some research online.

These kids did what
with the money they stole?

[man] They took
helicopter flights to dinner.

They bought $5,000 watches.

They rented mansions.

We lost everything...

everything we spent
decades building.

♪♪♪

♪ dramatic electronic music ♪

♪♪♪

[indistinct shouting]

♪♪♪

♪ dramatic music ♪

♪♪♪

[horn beeps]

[gate clattering]

♪♪♪

[Hind] This is one of a number
of prisons in this area

holding and overflowing with
ISIS suspects.

speaking native language

[Hind] There are rooms
all the way down the corridor.

Each room can contain
over 150 men.

We've seen people from Iraq,
Germany, Russia,

and even the United States.

It smells really bad,

like a combination
of human sweat,

feces, and urine.

♪♪♪

There are at least
5,000 prisoners here

from up to 30 countries.

Many are European citizens
whose governments

don't want them back.

- Were you a fighter?
- Yes, I was a fighter.

- So you are a terrorist?
- Yeah, of course.

[Hind] How would they know
that you're not gonna continue

the fight for ISIS or continue
spreading the ideology?

[Abdul] Because, number one,
I surrender myself.

- I am finished with it.
- [Hind] You had no choice.

No, it's not true.
I could fight till the end.

Everybody know ISIS fighters,
they fight till the end.

♪♪♪

[Hind] Casper Hansen
is from Denmark

and is one of the
highest-level detainees here.

Prison guards say
he commanded ISIS fighters

on the battlefield

and was injured
in a targeted air strike.

Do you know what they say
about you?

[Casper] No.

That you're an emir.

- An emir?
- An Islamic State prince.

Okay. [laughs]

- Did you work?
- No, no.

[Hind] And your wife,
did she work?

[Casper] No, she was
in the house.

[Hind] She didn't work.

How important is
the woman's role?

They must have done something

beyond just staying
in the house,

because I can't imagine--

What are you imagining, then?

That they had more of a role.

Like what, being fighters?

Maybe.

No, they didn't
allow women to fight.

I know that.

There were some women,

they was teaching
the religious methods.

It's about raising
your children

to learn the Islamic, uh, laws.

Will Islamic State re-form?
Do you believe that it will?

Islamic State will not stop.

To be continued.

[gunfire]

[Hind]
It was a year ago that ISIS

was on the verge
of defeat.

The terror group that,
at its peak,

controlled more than 34,000
square miles of Iraq and Syria

was cornered in Baghuz,

a tiny village
along the Euphrates River.

Sixty thousand
fled the final battle.

Men were hauled off
to prisons.

Women and children
were loaded into trucks

and transported
to refugee camps.

[gun cocking]

[man] speaking native language

[Hind] Today the Islamic State
remains active.

In Deir ez-Zor,
U.S. Special Forces

are training Kurdish
and Arab militias

to hunt down fighters

hiding out in villages
across Syria.

[gunfire]

But a growing threat
is the ISIS women

inside al-Hol,

a massive refugee camp
near the Iraqi border.

There's 65,000 residents here
from 45 different countries,

half of them children,

but they're not all ISIS.

Many are victims themselves

and are now forced
to live with women

who security officials say

are becoming more radical
by the day.

♪♪♪

We're with
the Kurdish intelligence

inside al-Hol Camp.

They're about to carry out
a raid targeting women

who they believe are part
of an ISIS patrol

which teaches, maintains,
and enforces

the extremist ideology
in the camp.

♪♪♪

These operations are actually
incredibly dangerous

because the women
that they're targeting

are known to be
some of the most violent women

inside this camp.

[women]
speaking native language

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

[Hind] Do you know why they
brought you in here?

[Umm] speaking native language

What we've been told is that
there are women like yourself

inside the camp who are
enforcing ISIS' ideology

on other women and on--

speaking native language

Do you regret coming here
to join the Islamic State?

Do you want to live
under an Islamic State again?

[Hind] With little evidence
against her,

camp intelligence
released Umm Hamza

just hours after this raid.

These women say that they're
not doing anything;

they're just sitting
inside their tents

and raising their children

and that these accusations
are false.

How do you respond to that?

speaking native language

What happens
if there's no resolution

for this problem?

[Hind] There's just about 400
security personnel

guarding this sprawling camp,

and officials are outnumbered.

One of the challenges
they face is finding out

who's radical and who isn't.

Leila Ouadi from France

has been targeted by women
who patrol the camp

and enforce strict ISIS laws

against wearing makeup
and socializing with men.

Have they attacked you
personally?

speaking French

Have you heard about them
doing it to other women?

[Hind] Leila doesn't live
in the camp alone.

She's stuck here
with her four children

with little access
to medicine and food.

And there may be no way out.

France, like other
European governments,

is making it nearly impossible

for their citizens
to return home.

What are you afraid of,
bringing them up in the camp?

If they don't get out, what are
you afraid will happen to them?

♪♪♪

[Hind]
Do you take responsibility

for the situation
that your children are in?

♪♪♪

[Hind] We've managed to get
access to a women's prison,

and this is the first time
that they're going to allow

journalists to go inside
and film.

Some of the women
that are being held there

are actually too dangerous
to be kept in the camps,

and so instead
they've been transferred

to this detention center.

Here the women are placed
in individual cells

and kept under
24-hour surveillance,

some along with
their children.

♪♪♪

Prison guards selected
three foreign detainees

for us to speak to.

Do you know why you're here
in this prison?

speaking native language

[Hind] Can you talk me through

how you ended up here?

speaking English

[Hind]
Do you know why you're here?

speaking native language

What was it like when you were
living in the Islamic State

during the time just before
you entered the camp?

How was it not like that?

Was this a big change,
in your opinion,

of ISIS and their ideology?

You're accused
of trying to smuggle

explosives into the camp.

speaking French

Yeah.

speaking English

That's stupid?

The role of women is also
to teach the children

the ideology of ISIS.

Is that right?

♪♪♪

[Hind] Women passing on
the ideology to children

is one of the most
urgent concerns

for security officials.

Eleven-year-old Malek
was held captive

by an ISIS woman
inside al-Hol.

She was rescued by
camp security just days ago

and is now being cared for
by a foster family.

♪♪♪

She's Yezidi,
a religious minority

that ISIS vowed to wipe out.

[woman]
speaking native language

[Hind] For six years, Malek
lived under the Islamic State.

After her mother and sister
were killed in an air strike,

she was taken in
by an ISIS woman

who tried to erase her past.

speaking native language

speaking native language

[chickens clucking]

Okay.

Gonna show us where she sleeps.

No.

Cu-cuckoo-koo!

[Hind] She's been here now
for a couple of weeks,

and she's clearly become
accustomed to living here.

She's not
what I expected at all

when they told me that
there was an 11-year-old girl

who'd been living
with ISIS families

and was in the camp
and was getting rescued.

It's nice to see her acting
like any other 11-year-old.

The next step for her is going
to meet her real family.

[laughs]

♪♪♪

[Hind] Malek is fortunate.

She's no longer
in the hands of ISIS.

But for many of the children
still inside the camp,

their future is uncertain.

Here the ideology
is spreading fast,

and security is carrying out
weekly raids

to try and contain it.

[women]
speaking native language

[Hind] One of the ways
they do that

is by gathering intelligence
from informants

living inside al-Hol.

That information
has led security officials

to the far corner of the camp,

where they suspect
is an ISIS school.

So this woman coming out now
who they've handcuffed

is apparently one
of the ISIS women

teaching the children
extremist ISIS ideology.

♪♪♪

The camp security may be
fighting a losing battle.

As they try and root out
the teachers,

there's already a new
generation in the making.

speaking native language

♪♪♪

♪ dark music ♪

[Anonymous] There is no
one criteria for a target.

I view it as, like,
a hunt, man.

It's like a hunt.

If you've ever been hunting,

you understand
what it feels like

to track down your target
and fucking kill it.

I mean,
you basically just...

made money
for doing nothing:

um, a phone call
and some research online.

♪♪♪

[Robert] I had never heard
of a SIM swap before.

I mean, these days
are really a challenge--

every day.

You know,
sometimes I-I wake up

and it's hard
to get out of bed.

So when it first happened,
October 26th,

I didn't sleep that night.

I was up with AT&T
the entire night.

♪♪♪

I mean, you know, I was--

I mean, I was suicidal.

What brings me down is worry,

worry that I can't meet
the tuition for my daughter.

Within, like, 20 minutes,

a million dollars was stolen.

I can't even believe I made
a million dollars,

let alone lost
a million dollars.

I mean...

Quite a lot of victims

were completely caught
by surprise.

[Krishna]
Allison Nixon specializes

in cybercrime
and risk intelligence.

SIM swapping is a technique

where criminals basically
steal your phone number,

and all of the text messages
and calls and information

intended for your phone
now go to their phone.

And why is that important?

Well, it's important because

your entire
online identity nowadays

rests on your phone number.

Your phone number is tied
to your physical phone

via this, a SIM card,
a little microchip

with a unique ID that your
telephone company has on file.

To do a SIM swap, a hacker
gets a cell phone employee

to switch the SIM card number
that's linked to your phone

to a phone they have.

[Allison]
They can do anything

with your phone number
that you would do,

so imagine you forgot
your password legitimately

and you need to get back
into your bank account.

Banks, web mail providers,

they have
an account recovery process

for customers that forget
their passwords.

Since they have
my phone number,

they can get into my email.

Most web mail
providers nowadays

either require
or strongly encourage

that you hand over
your phone number.

I-I have little to no
technical expertise.

I'm hacking people,
not computers.

It takes a certain type
of person,

but it's not a genius.

You don't have to be
outstandingly intelligent.

You just have to know
how to do it

and have the will to do it.

[Robert]
It's not like a regular hack.

Unsophisticated kids

can do devastating damage.

♪ upbeat dance music ♪

Nick Truglia is a 21-year-old.

He stole a million dollars
from me.

[Krishna] What's, like,
the spending habits

of these SIM swappers?

What we were seeing
was basically

the infinite-money fantasy
of every 21-year-old.

They would go to the club,

waste tons of money,

show it off on social media.

[Anonymous]
Some of the stupid ways

I can think
we've spent our money:

took a helicopter

from Queens to Manhattan
to get to dinner

just because we felt like it.

[Allison] They would all
stand in a circle

with their
really expensive Rolexes

and dump this champagne
onto their Rolexes

onto the floor.

[Anonymous]
I probably spent, like,

$1/4 million on champagne.

[Krishna]
So how much are you worth?

Um, I won't say
an exact amount,

but it's, uh,
under $90 million USD

and over $40 million,
all in Bitcoin.

♪♪♪

[Krishna] For hackers
on the hunt for a big payday,

SIM swapping turns robbery
into child's play.

[Anonymous] So it all
really started out

with a bunch of kids
playing Call of Duty

around, ooh,
I want to say 2013.

People started wanting
these things called

OG accounts on PlayStation.

So imagine you're a kid
playing a video game

and someone shows up
in your game

and their username
is just Hacker.

Like, no numbers after it,

nothing,
just the word "hacker."

It's just sort of like
a-a status thing.

So we would call up
PlayStation Network.

We'd have their name, address,
and all their personal info,

and we would try to get-get
their accounts.

[Krishna] And once you had
that OG username,

you could sell it
to someone else

through an online marketplace.

[Allison] The big sellers
on these username markets

have realized
that the only feasible way

to get good stock to sell
is to steal accounts.

At some point,
somebody realized

that video games
and social media

are really only worth so much

and if they want
to make more money,

they really need to start
targeting cryptocurrency,

where they can make hundreds
of millions of dollars.

[Krishna] Cryptocurrencies
are virtual gold mines.

Sure, OG usernames could net
a few thousand dollars,

but digital wallets
of Bitcoin and Ethereum

could be swiped
just as easily.

[Anonymous] So there was
this one time me and my buddy

were scrambling
before this guy, like,

tries to get his account back,

before he gets
his cell phone number back,

and, uh, my partner
obviously just made, like,

roughly $10 million
to $15 million.

He says, "Oh, yeah,
I gotta go."

I said, "Why?"

He says, "Oh, I gotta do
my fucking homework."

I thought-I thought
it was really funny.

♪ eerie music ♪

[Samy] Last year, we didn't
even know what it was,

and 98 percent of cops

would have no idea,
if a victim came to them,

what happened
and how to investigate it.

[Krishna] Since 2015,
it's estimated

that hundreds of millions
of dollars

have been stolen
by SIM swapping,

but only a handful
of SIM swappers

have ever been caught.

[John] I would say the
majority of cases we go into,

it's kids living
with their parents.

And so a lot of times,
we will run into a mom who

thinks all their son
is doing is gaming

or just happens to be
very brilliant

at Bitcoin investment

and that's the reason
he bought her

a brand-new Toyota
or something like that.

[Krishna] In November 2018,
they caught Nick Truglia,

the young man
accused of stealing

over a million dollars
from Rob Ross.

Truglia did have
a social media presence,

with him flying
on private jets

and showing fancy clothing
and fancy watches.

He definitely was portraying
himself as a rich guy

and, like,
a self-made millionaire,

possibly, like, through, like,
investment banking.

But we came to find out
that everything

he posted online about himself
was just a lie.

[Krishna] The criminal case
of alleged SIM swapper

Nick Truglia
is still ongoing.

[man] The court is going
to deny the motion

to reset bail.

[Krishna] He maintains
his innocence

and is currently
awaiting trial.

♪♪♪

But careful SIM swappers

are usually harder
to pin down.

Richard Sanders
cofounded CipherBlade,

a blockchain investigation
agency that,

among other things,
uses SIM swappers'

social engineering tactics--

pretending to be
someone they're not--

to take them down.

[Richard] This is a flow
of transactions

from an influencer
that experienced a hack.

This was a team
of three to four folks.

They split up the money,

and they sent it to different
wallets from there.

♪♪♪

So I pretended to be
a very, very attractive

19-year-old female video gamer
named Alyssa.

I joined their Discord server

and just started chatting
with these folks.

They're sliding into my DMs.

They're telling me pretty much
anything I wanted to know.

Showing off their money.

I would ask, "How are you
making that money?"

They'd talk
about SIM swapping.

Yeah, a bunch of them
are talking to me,

but one of them sent me
quite a few different selfies.

There's DMs he sent me

where he admits
to what he did.

And sure enough, he sends me

this picture.

Joel Ortiz.

♪ tense music ♪

[Krishna] In May 2019,
a group of hackers targeted

more than 50 victims,
stealing over $35 million.

Ortiz was one of them--

brazen, prolific, and now
accountable for ten felonies.

Rob Ross attended
a public hearing

where his accusers
were allowed

to make victim statements.

[Robert] I think all SIM swap
victims who have lost money

are watching
this Joel Ortiz trial

and certainly the SIM swappers
are watching it

to see how much time he will
end up having to serve.

In my case, Ortiz stole control
of my phone service twice

to take over all of my email
and financial accounts,

ultimately stealing
my entire life savings,

approximately $1.8 million.

[Ann Marie]
We lost everything.

I'm 50 years old
with two small children,

and I ha--I'm facing
no retirement...

♪♪♪

...because Joel Ortiz,
in one day,

destroyed our lives,

everything we spent
decades building.

♪♪♪

[Krishna] Ortiz pleaded
no contest to the charges

and, in accordance
with his plea deal,

was sentenced to ten years
in prison.

But prosecutors have failed
to get him to reveal

the location of Bitcoin
they suspect he's hidden.

[man] Given that he stole
at least $7 million

that we know about,

we believe that he has
significantly more

than $2 million
that he refuses to return.

And Joel Ortiz
will likely leave jail

with over $4 million
at age 24.

[woman] Ooh!

♪♪♪

[Anonymous]
If I were to go to jail, um,

it really wouldn't be
that many years.

It's not like murder.

It's really just, like,
a decade

at-at-at most
is what people look at,

and then even then,
I would still have my money

when I got out
because it's Bitcoin.

Um, they can't--
it's not like a bank account.

They can't take the money.

I mean, obviously it would suck
to go to jail for a decade,

but, um,

uh, the way I have
everything set up,

I don't think
that'll happen.

[Krishna] As the tactics
of SIM swappers

continue to evolve,

victims are now starting
to fight back.

Michael Terpin lost
$24 million in a SIM swap.

Now he's suing AT&T
for letting this happen.

People don't realize that most
of the AT&T stores

that say AT&T
aren't actually owned by AT&T.

They're licensed, and yet
they have the same access,

um, as an employee would
to critical information

that will let anybody be bribed
for about $100.

There's over 1,000 cases
just from AT&T alone

that one group
is investigating.

They've basically said
they don't take responsibility

for security;
that's not their job.

[Krishna] Early this year,

three senators
and three representatives

wrote a letter to the FCC,

pressuring them to take on
SIM swap fraud.

Vice reached out to AT&T,
Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Sprint didn't get back to us.

The others declined to be
interviewed on camera.

But AT&T did provide us
with a statement.

The irony is rich here

because phone numbers
were collected

as a way to make accounts
more secure.

And now they are a back door
for accounts.

♪♪♪

My endgame? [laughs]

There's-there's no endgame.

It's just...

the goal-the goal
is just to make

as much money as possible.

I just want to be happy.

That's-that's really it.

That means I'll stop
when they make me stop.

- ♪ Look at my swag ♪
- ♪ Look at my ♪

♪ Look at that bag ♪

♪ Ain't that jewelry, yeah ♪

- ♪ Look at my house ♪
- ♪ Look at my ♪

♪ Look at my spouse ♪

♪ Ain't that jewelry, yeah ♪

- ♪ Look at my bitch ♪
- ♪ Look at my ♪

♪ Look at my whip ♪

♪ Ain't that jewelry, yeah ♪

- ♪ Look at my swag ♪
- ♪ Look at my ♪

♪ Look at that bag ♪

♪ Ain't that jewelry, yeah ♪

- ♪ Look at that bag ♪
- ♪ Swag ♪

- ♪ Look at that bag ♪
- ♪ Swag ♪

♪ Look at that bag,
look at that bag ♪

- ♪ Swag ♪
- ♪ Look at that bag ♪

♪ Swag, swag ♪

- ♪ Look at that bag ♪
- ♪ Swag ♪