U.S. police have detained 17-year-old Graham Clarke, a resident of Tampa, accusing him of involvement in the recent Twitter hack and the fraudulent Bitcoin giveaway. Local television channel WFLA reported this
Graham Clarke is suspected of involvement in the Twitter attack, during which the accounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and other businessmen and celebrities were breached. During the attack, the perpetrator orchestrated a fraudulent cryptocurrency giveaway in their name, netting about $120,000 in BTC.
The Florida attorney general has charged Clarke with 30 counts, including participation in organized fraud, 17 schemes using modern electronic communications, and 11 offenses related to the improper use of personal data. At least 30 victims suffered losses totaling more than $100,000.
Graham Clarke remains in custody.
In addition to him, police arrested two more suspects: 19-year-old British citizen Mason Sheppard and 22-year-old American Nima Fazeli. The first is charged with organized fraud using electronic means and money laundering; the second with facilitating illicit access to computer systems.
Earlier on July 15, hackers breached a number of Twitter accounts and posted messages about a fake Bitcoin giveaway.
The company said the attackers were able to take control of the accounts through a social engineering attack aimed at employees with access to internal systems. Later the platform said that hackers compromised 45 celebrity accounts by password resets.
According to the latest official information, the Twitter attackers gained access to internal tools via phishing targeted at the mobile phones of employees.
According to Elliptic, more than half of the bitcoins obtained from the celebrity account hack were laundered through the ChipMixer and Wasabi Wallet mixers.
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