Teen’s Twitter Bitcoin Hack Ends In A 3 Year Prison Sentence
Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk were along the compromised accounts.
Last summer you may remember that a 17 year old Tampa high school student managed to hack into celebrity social media accounts to solicit over $100,000 in Bitcoin. Last Tuesday Graham Ivan Clark pleaded guilty for transgression and ended up receiving a three year prison sentence and an additional three year probation after.
The hacking scheme saw celebrity Twitter accounts compromised and tweeting messages like “I am giving back to the community. All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000. Only doing this for 30 minutes… Enjoy!” While this message seems obviously fake, many did end up sending bitcoin and the scam ended up receiving $117,000 before it was stopped. Among the celebrities hacked were Elon Musk, Kanye West, Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian, Uber, Apple and even Joe Biden.
We appreciate the swift actions of law enforcement in this investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case progresses. For our part, we are focused on being transparent and providing updates regularly.
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) July 31, 2020
For the latest, see here 👇 https://t.co/kHty8TXaly
After Clark’s arrest authorities realized that he was able to convince a Twitter employee that he was part of the social media’s information tech department to enable him to access the site’s customer service portal. Clark’s plea allowed him to be sentenced as a ‘youthful offender,’ saving him from a 10-year minimum punishment that is standard for adults.
So, next time you see your favorite celeb asking for bitcoin maybe give it a miss.
Next up, Why Is No One Talking About What Happened To Blessing Olusegun?
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