- A Canadian man has been found guilty of scamming approximately 200 victims out of CAD$1 million while on bail for an earlier crypto heist which netted him CAD$48 million.
- In 2020 the man had performed a SIM swap attack to gain access to the crypto accounts of Josh Jones, the co-founder of web hosting company DreamHost, allowing him to steal around CAD$48 million in digital assets.
- While on bail for this theft, the man immediately cooked up a new scheme involving gaining control of X accounts to post fake competitions designed to harvest users’ crypto wallet passphrases.
A Canadian man who was behind one of the largest crypto heists in Canadian history has been found guilty of scamming a further CAD$1 million (AU$1.08m) from around 200 victims while out on bail for his original crime.
In 2020, the man — whose identity remains hidden because he was a minor at the time of his original offending — used a SIM swap attack to gain access to the crypto accounts of early internet entrepreneur Josh Jones, co-founder of web hosting company DreamHost. Once he was able to access Jones’ accounts, the man stole approximately CAD$48 million (AU$52.1m) worth of digital assets.
He was tracked down and arrested after the FBI and Canadian police were able to link him to the purchase of the much sought-after ‘God’ gamertag on the PlayStation Network. Following the heist, the man paid over CAD$30,000 (AU$33k) in Bitcoin to acquire the moniker. When police searched his residence, they found a PlayStation linked to the ‘God’ username.
Following his conviction, the man was released on bail in May 2022, having served around a year in pre-trial custody. He was also sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to repay what remained of his heist, around CAD$2.5 million (AU$2.7m).
Related: GreedyBear Hackers Steal $1M Using Malicious Firefox Extensions
Man Targets X Users While on Bail for Earlier Heist
During his trial for stealing Josh Jones’ crypto, the man’s defence lawyer told the court: ”There’s a burning desire on [his] part to make things right … This is him growing up.”
The man himself also told the court that he’d learnt from his mistakes and was ready to leave the scamming behind. “I’ve truly taken this time to reflect on my actions and learn from my mistakes,” he said. “I intend to move forward only in a positive direction and I thank the court for allowing me to do so.”
However, it would appear the man had not, in fact, grown up. While out on bail for the original theft, he cooked up another scam — this time defrauding X users.
Working with a group of other fraudsters, the man targeted relatively large X accounts with follower counts in the hundreds of thousands, convincing the social media platform’s support staff to change the contact details on the accounts so the fraudsters could control them. Once they had control of the accounts, the group then posted fake contests, directing X users to phishing websites designed to gather their crypto wallet passphrases.
This scheme netted the group an estimated CAD$1 million (AU$1.08m) in ill-gotten gains from approximately 200 victims.
Related: Paraguayan President’s X Account Hacked in Fake Bitcoin Legal Tender Scam
As part of his sentencing for the second crime, the man faces a further year behind bars in the US and is required to pay back around CAD$320,000 (AU$347k) — a conservative estimate of the victims’ losses. The man also faces a fine of just under CAD$83,000 (AU$90k).
According to the man’s US defence lawyer, Stuart Sears, this offending occurred partly as a result of his use of “dangerous narcotics”, which he began using while in detention for his earlier crime. In a document filed with the court, Sears wrote that the man has now seen the errors of his ways, explaining “he is now a young man who is painfully aware of the errors in his prior judgment and thinking…And for the first time, he understands what it is that he stands to lose.”
Credit: Source link
