UK Hacker Gets Time in Prison for a $120,000 Crypto Scam on Twitter
After almost 3 years, a UK citizen who took part in a Crypto currency scam in July of 2020 faces 5 years in prison.
24-year-old, Joseph James O’Connor (aka PlugwalkJoe), was awarded the sentence on Friday, the 23rd of June in the Southern District of New York, being just over a month since he pled guilty to the charges.
This was possible due to the Twitter breach in 2020, where Joseph and his partners gained unauthorised access to backend tools used by Twitter. They then abused these to enact a crypto scam against 130 high-profile users – this concluded with a total profit of $120,000.
The US Department of Justice says, “In other instances, the co-conspirators sold access to Twitter accounts to others,” they continue to say that “O’Connor communicated with others regarding purchasing unauthorized access to a variety of Twitter accounts, including accounts associated with public figures around the world.”
There are allegations that Joseph has also targeted a cryptocurrency company in New York to steal $794,000 worth of crypto. Moreover, he has also been accused of heading up SIM-swapping attacks to take control of TikTok and Snapchat accounts.
“After stealing and fraudulently diverting the Stolen Cryptocurrency, O’Connor and his co-conspirators laundered it through dozens of transfers and transactions and exchanged some of it for Bitcoin using cryptocurrency exchange services,” the US Department of Justice explained.
“Ultimately, a portion of the Stolen Cryptocurrency was deposited into a cryptocurrency exchange account controlled by O’Connor.”
Furthermore, Joseph has other offences such as cyberstalking two victims, including a minor, in June and July 2020 by falsely claiming that the individual was threatening to shoot people to incite a law enforcement response.
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