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James O’Conner, a well-known cryptocurrency fraudster and Twitter hacker was given a five-year prison term. A federal court issued the punishment after O’Conner entered a guilty plea to many offenses, including a SIM-swapping attack to get access to a popular TikTok account.
In July 2020, a group of hackers, including O’Conner, got access to prominent Twitter accounts, including those of Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Elon Musk. By promising to double any Bitcoin delivered to a certain address, the hackers advertised a Bitcoin fraud using the accounts. Before Twitter deactivated the stolen accounts, the scheme earned the hackers almost $794,000 in Bitcoin.
Twitter hacker and scammer James O’Conner should serve five years in prison
According to the Justice Department, “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 agency further explains that stolen Bitcoins were stored in a cryptocurrency exchange account by O’Conner.
James O’Conner and his team reportedly used a breach found by Graham Ivan Clark. A teenage boy who is said to be the mastermind behind the breach. Clark later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison. The O’Conner, however, should serve five years in jail. In addition to three years of supervised release after getting out of prison. The federal judge also ruled that O’Conner should return the $794,000 he made through scam.
The O’Conner case is not the first cryptocurrency scam case and certainly won’t be the last. As an Internet user, you must be aware of scammers. As well as their tactics to sneak into your device or force you into payment through a fake webpage. There are multiple ways to safeguard your privacy online, including using strong passwords, avoiding suspicious emails and links, and enabling two-factor authentication.