Celebrity account hacker accused of stealing cryptocurrencies from $784 000 – Bits Media

Британцу Джозефу Джеймсу О'Коннору, who has previously hacked celebrity Twitter accounts, another charge has been filed: in BTC theft, ETH and LTC on $784 000 through SIM card fraud.

According to
Reuters publications, this week to 22-year-old Briton Joseph James O'Connor (Joseph James O’Connor), aka PlugwalkJoe, new charges were filed. The prosecutor's office claims, that he was involved in a conspiracy to commit fraud using SIM cards and other electronic communications, money laundering, aggravated identity theft and computer hacking in New York.

The fraudulent scheme operated from March to May 2019 of the year. As a result, O’Connor and other attackers managed to steal BTC, ETH and LTC total amount $784 000.

Last July, O'Connor was arrested for his involvement in the massive hacking of Twitter accounts., owned by politicians and celebrities. The victims of the hack were former US President Barack Obama, current President Joe Biden, Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Elon Musk), Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (Bill Gates), Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (Changpeng Zhao), Tron founder Justin Sun (Justin Sun), investor Warren Buffett (Warren Buffett) and famous rapper Kanye West (Kanye West).

On behalf of these people, scammers announced a Bitcoin giveaway and asked users to transfer them a certain amount of BTC, promising to send much larger sums in return. In March, burglary accomplice Graham Ivan Clarke (Graham Ivan Clark) pleaded guilty in Florida court and agreed to serve three years in juvenile prison.

SIM card fraud happens quite often. In February, British police arrested eight people for stealing fiat currencies and crypto assets worth $100 million, which they managed to accomplish, using mobile phone numbers. Besides, Last year, the US Department of Justice charged a California student with committing similar fraud..