A 17 year old from Florida has been arrested and accused of being the mastermind behind a major Twitter hack that scammed users of more than $180,000 in Bitcoin Cryptocurrency.
According to a report by the New York Times, the teenager and a group of hackers were behind the hack of 130 high profile Twitter account including those of Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Barrack Obama and Bill Gates.
Graham Ivy Clark, 17, was arrested on Friday by State authorities and was already on the radar of Federal Authorities before the Twitter Hack in July. Bitcoin worth $700,000 was seized from the teenager by the secret service in April.
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The Twitter hack which started on July 15 escalated from efforts to steal and sell unusual user names to taking over of accounts of cryptocurrency companies, celebrities and politicians to solicit for bitcoin.
The hackers tweeted such messages from 45 accounts and had access to the Direct messages of 36 more, downloading full information from seven of these.
According to reports, the hackers involved in the breach, stole login information from Twitter employees and used it gain access to the accounts whose passwords were then reset.
Other hackers involved in the breach say they were only involved with secretly selling stolen user names before the teenager pulled the Bitcoin scam and disappeared.
The teenager from Tampa bay, Florida is expected to face charges of felony including fraud and will be tried as an adult.
According to the State Attorney for Hillsborough county, Andrew Warren;
“Working together, we will hold this defendant accountable. Scamming people out of their hard-earned money is always wrong.
Whether you’re taking advantage of someone in person or on the internet, trying to steal their cash or their cryptocurrency — it’s fraud, it’s illegal, and you won’t get away with it.”
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