Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.
A man from the UK, Joseph O’Connor, who was involved in hacking prominent Twitter (now X) accounts as part of a Bitcoin fraud scheme, has been ordered to surrender £4.1 million in stolen cryptocurrency. O’Connor, originally from Liverpool, gained control of over 130 high-profile accounts in July 2020, including those belonging to notable figures such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Elon Musk.
At 26 years old, O’Connor fled to Spain, where his mother resides, before being apprehended and extradited to the United States for trial. After being sentenced to five years for cybercrimes, he was released in 2025. However, he is now required to give up the cryptocurrency he acquired through multiple hacks and scams.
The scam, known as the “giveaway scam,” was carried out by O’Connor under the pseudonym PlugwalkJoe alongside other young men and teenagers. They breached Twitter’s internal systems and took control of well-known accounts. The US authorities charged three others involved, with a US teenager, Graham Clark, admitting guilt back in 2021. The hackers initially gained access by tricking a small number of Twitter employees into providing their internal login credentials, which then allowed entry into the social media site’s administrative tools. Through social engineering tactics, they accessed the platform’s internal control panel.
Once inside the accounts of celebrities, the hackers impersonated the stars and posted tweets urging followers to send Bitcoin to various digital wallets, claiming the cryptocurrency would be doubled. This fraudulent activity was visible to around 350 million Twitter users, affecting accounts of major brands and personalities like Apple, Uber, Kanye West, and Bill Gates. Thousands of people were deceived into believing the crypto giveaway was genuine. Over a two-day period in July 2020, 426 payments were made to the scammers, involving more than 12.86 BTC, which was valued at approximately $110,000 (£83,500) then but is now worth $1.2 million.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the UK indicated that additional cryptocurrency obtained by O’Connor was linked to other criminal hacks involving young accomplices he met while playing Call of Duty online. In total, the CPS has recovered 42 Bitcoin and other digital currencies from him. Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, commented on the case, highlighting that O’Connor “targeted well known individuals and used their accounts to scam people out of their crypto assets and money.” He added, “Even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality.
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.