A 22-year-old Canadian, Cameron Redman, has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for hacking X social media accounts and stealing digital assets worth approximately $794,000.
According to the materials of the Virginia District Court (USA), the hacker was also given three years of probation. He is required to compensate $248,257 to the victims and pay a $60,400 fine.
The man was found guilty on three counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit a felony related to identity theft.
The case materials state that the criminal and his unnamed accomplices deceived over 200 victims in a few days, using stolen X-accounts of well-known digital artists and brands to post phishing links.
Specific hacked pages are not mentioned in the documents, but screenshots and descriptions suggest their owners. Among them are accounts of NFT artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, fashion house Louis Vuitton, and the Nouns project. A total of five accounts are involved in the case.
The criminals lured users with cryptocurrency giveaways or free token distributions.
“While victims thought they were authorizing a transaction to receive NFTs in their digital wallets, they unknowingly allowed the conspirators to steal cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens,” federal authorities stated.
Prosecutors described Redman as a skilled hacker. As a minor, he served a year in prison for stealing over $40 million in cryptocurrency through a SIM-swapping attack.
“The defendant has established himself as an experienced and successful repeat cybercriminal. […] For at least a year after his release, the defendant settled in his father’s basement, seeking and finding new ways to profit from criminal activities,” court documents state.
Back in July, Indian police launched an investigation into the theft of crypto assets worth $44 million from the CoinDCX exchange. According to the investigation, hackers gained access to the company’s wallets through an employee’s laptop.