Briton Joseph James O’Connor, who previously hacked politician and celebrity Twitter accounts, has been charged for stealing $784,000 worth of BTC, ETH, and LTC through a SIM card fraud.
According to Reuters:
“U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan said Joseph James O’Connor, 22, and his accomplices stole bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin after gaining control of victims’ cellphone numbers by linking them to subscriber identity module cards, or SIM cards.
O’Connor, also known as PlugwalkJoe, and his accomplices conducted so-called SIM swap attacks targeting three executives of a Manhattan cryptocurrency company, stole cryptocurrency from two clients, and laundered what they stole, prosecutors said.
A lawyer for O’Connor could not immediately be identified. Prosecutors said the scheme ran from March to May 2019.
O’Connor has been awaiting possible extradition from Spain following his July 21 arrest concerning a July 2020 hacking that compromised dozens of Twitter accounts and allegedly netted more than $118,000 of bitcoin.”
Last July, O’Connor was arrested for involvement in a massive hacking of politicians and celebrity Twitter accounts. The victims of the hack were former US President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, Tron founder Justin Sun, investor Warren Buffett and famous rapper Kanye West. On behalf of these people, O’Connor asked famous personalities followers to transfer a certain amount of BTC, promising to send much larger amounts in return.
SIM fraud is common, In February, British police arrested eight people for stealing $100 million in fiat currencies and crypto assets using cell phone numbers. In addition, last year the US Department of Justice charged a California student with a similar fraud.
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