The Department of Justice charged the accused teenager and his accomplices with stealing money from crypto officials in the Silicon Valley region.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking to confiscate Bitcoins worth millions of dollars stolen from crypto officials four years ago by a teenage hacker. In addition, prosecutors aim to repossess the sports vehicle he purchased using the stolen Bitcoin.
Teen Hacker Run SIM-Swapping Activity
Last week, a report claimed that a federal judge approved an order compelling Ahmad Waagafe Hared to surrender more than $5.2M in Bitcoin stolen in 2016. The Bitcoins and car theft were linked to a SIM-swapping activity between 2016 and 2018 by Hared and two co-accomplices.
SIM-swapping entails a hacker tricking a cell phone carrier into giving control of a target’s cellphone by imitating the owner. Hackers utilize this classic social engineering approach to acquire access to private information to steal from targets. Alternatively, they rely on second-factor authentication strategies to bypass text messages.
In 2016, Harred, who was 18 and residing in Tucson, Arizona, jointly worked with Matthew Gene Ditman of Nevada to lure cell phone providers’ client support personnel to reveal details regarding SIM cards linked to accounts of cryptocurrency officials in northern California.
Despite the officials not being unnamed, the area hosts Silicon Valley and a whole ecosystem of cryptocurrency firms as well as startups. At one point, Coinbase, the U.S.’s biggest exchange, considered San Francisco its home. However, it transformed into a totally remote firm.
Teen Hacker Nurtured his Exploit in Darknet
Harred was an already-known inhabitant of the supposed darknet. According to Brian Krebs, a cybersecurity journalist, he used the name ‘winblo.’ Via this identity, he was ‘quite active’ and ‘respected’ on an online platform facilitating the sale of highly prized social media accounts.
Harred utilized some of the stolen funds to buy a BMW i8 that was reported to cost an estimated $150000. In their indictment, prosecutors claimed the two contacted some victims after taking control of their accounts to extort them more. A probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2019 resulted in the end of the scheme. Despite Harred and Ditman’s arrest, they are yet to be sentenced.
The move by the regulator to pursue proceeds of crime is justified following the loss crypto investors have suffered since the FTX implosion. Firms that acknowledged significant exposure plunged into bankruptcy. The awareness that the investors would only recover a portion of their claims in the frozen digital assets warrants the pursuit of gains and wealth accumulated by individuals behind the fraudulent activity.
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