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“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of other prominent people and celebrities, but they are not the most important victims here,” Warren said in a statement. “This ‘Bit-Con’ was designed to borrow cash from ordinary Americans across the country, adding here in Florida.”
The fraudulent Bitcoin account earned more than 400 transfers of more than $100,000, according to the DOJ.
Clark faces fees that add organized fraud, communications fraud, and fraudulent use of non-public information. Sheppard faces conspiracy-added fees to devote electronic fraud and conspiracy to devote cash laundering, while Fazeli is accused of assisting and inciting intentional access to a computer.
“There is a false trust within the hacker network that attacks like Twitter can be perpetrated anonymously and without consequence,” federal prosecutor David Anderson said in a statement. “Criminal behavior on the Internet would possibly seem stealthy to other people who perpetuate it, but there is nothing stealthy about it.”
Researchers tested discussions about Discord, Bitcoin transactions and records from a hacked forum database to link Sheppard and Fazeli to the Bitcoin scam on Twitter, to legal documents.
CNET was not without delay able to identify the lawyers of the 3 suspects. Fazeli’s father told The Associated Press that he believes his son is innocent. “We are as surprised as everyone else, ” said Mohamad Fazeli. “I’m sure it’s a mix.”
Twitter on Thursday said the hack — which targeted the accounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Kanye West, Barack Obama and other celebrities — was the result of a spearphishing attack. Twitter said the attackers needed both access to Twitter’s internal network and employee credentials that granted access to specific support tools.
The hackers allegedly relied on a technique that relies on fake emails disguised as valid messages to trick recipients into revealing passwords or other sensitive information. Twitter said 130 accounts were attacked in the attack, and hackers effectively tweeted from forty-five accounts, accessed direct message inboxes from 36 accounts, and downloaded seven Twitter knowledge.
Twitter hacking has fueled fears among politicians, cybersecurity experts and Twitter users that the social networking site is not in a position to combat election interference and other security issues. Election security has been a major fear for generation corporations since Russian trolls used social media posts and ads classified on Facebook and Twitter to sow discord among Americans in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
“Increasingly, we rely on platforms like Twitter to get news and other data from our lives. Twitter’s VIP hacking undermines public trust in those data platforms. Anyone who uses Twitter or is influenced by it has fallen victim to this hack,” Anderson said. in a video uttering the accusations.
In a Twitter post on Friday, the company said it appreciated the “rapid movements of law enforcement in this investigation and would continue to cooperate as the case progresses.” Twitter added that it would continue to provide updates.